Life Coaching: the Attempt of New Middle Class for Self-Change

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LIFE COACHING: THE ATTEMPT OF NEW MIDDLE CLASS FOR SELF-CHANGE

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES OF İSTANBUL ŞEHİR UNIVERSITY

FERZAN AŞIK

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN SOCIOLOGY

MAY 2017

ABSTRACT

LIFE COACHING: THE ATTEMPT OF NEW MIDDLE CLASS FOR SELF-CHANGE

Aşık, Ferzan MA in Sociology Thesis Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Eda Yücesoy May 2017, 148 pages

This thesis aims to analyze the pursuit of the new middle class for a self-change via coaching practice, by depicturing the habitus of this class and the coaching sessions. For this study, I made a qualitative research in Istanbul based on interviews done with both the life coaches and coachees, and document analysis of the web sites of the life coaches and the books written by them. My research findings show that coaching can be conceptualized as a practice, which is used by the members of the new middle class habitus to reconstruct their rooted dispositions. I depict the habitus of the new middle class through the reproduction strategies of education, gender, and omnivore taste. Within this scope, I trace the formation of a new doxa, which is formed through coaching mentality, and panopticon, which is constructed as a new self-disciplining mechanism. Also, I look at the agency of coaching practice in the ways it shapes a new self-narration and an emotional language for coachees, by way of using a series of spiritual or rational methods. This process of self-change is investigated as a production of reciprocally displayed identity performances, resting upon developing interaction along the sessions. Within this context, my thesis is based upon two main arguments. The first is that the members of the new middle class engage in a process of habitus transformation, in order to reach their socially founded ideal selves. The other is the finding that the coachees’ acquirement of the new self-perception, that is imposed by the coaches through the regime of truth, relies on a understanding in compatible with the existing system.

Keywords: new middle class, habitus, coaching practice, doxa, panopticon, self- perception.

iv ÖZ

YAŞAM KOÇLUĞU: YENİ ORTA SINIFIN KENDİNİ DEĞİŞTİRME GİRİŞİMİ

Aşık, Ferzan Sosyoloji Yüksek Lisans Programı Tez Danışmanı: Doç. Dr. Eda Yücesoy Mayıs 2017, 148 sayfa

Bu tez, yeni orta sınıfın, koçluk pratiği vasıtasıyla kendilerini değiştirme girişimlerini, bu sınıfın habitus’unu ve koçluk seanslarını resmederek analiz etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu çalışma için, yaşam koçları ve danışanlarla yapılan röportajlara ve aynı zamanda yaşam koçlarına ait kitap ve sitelerin döküman olarak analizine dayalı niteliksel bir araştırma yapılmıştır. Bulgular göstermektedir ki koçluk, yeni orta sınıf habitus’u tarafından kökleştirilmiş eğilimlerin yeniden yapılandırılması için kullanılan bir pratik olarak kavramsallaştırılabilir. Bu sınıf habitus’unu, yeniden üretim stratejileri olan eğitim, toplumsal cinsiyet ve omnivore(hepçil) bir beğeni anlayışı üzerinden tanımlıyorum. Bu çerçevede, koçluk perspektifi dolayımıyla oluşturulan yeni doxa’nın (kanaat) ve kendini disipline etme mekanizması olarak kurulan yeni panopticon’un izini sürüyorum. Ayrıca, koçluk pratiğinin çeşitli ruhsal ya da rasyonel teknikleri kullanarak, danışanlar açısından yeni bir kendilik anlatısı ve duygusal dil kurma noktasındaki failliğine bakıyorum. Bu kendini değiştirme süreci, seanslar boyunca gelişen etkileşim kapsamında, karşılıklı olarak sergilenen kimlik performanslarının ürünü olarak incelenmektedir. Bu bağlamda, tez 2 ana argümana dayanmaktadır. İlki, yaşam koçluğunun, yeni orta sınıf mensuplarının, sosyal olarak kurulmuş ideal benliklere erişmek için başvurdukları bir pratik olduğudur. Diğeri ise, seanslar süresince koçların danışanlara empoze ettiği hakikat rejimi üzerinden danışanların edindiği yeni kendilik algısının sistemle uyumlu bir anlayışa dayalı olduğu bulgusudur.

Anahtar Kelimeler: yeni orta sınıf, habitus, koçluk pratiği, doxa (kanaat), panopticon kendilik algısı.

v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I express my sincere thanks to my thesis advisor Assoc. Prof. Eda Yücesoy. Although my study is about a rarely studied topic and it was not so easy to handle this subject with sociological thinking, she has been always supportive of me by being a wonderful guide whenever I have lost my way. I am very grateful to her for becoming such an open-minded, responsible, and tactful adviser.

I also would like to thank Assoc. Prof. Nurullah Ardıç and Assist. Prof. Güldem Baykal Büyüksaraç for becoming jury members at my thesis presentation. Even though Professor Ardıç was not my adviser, he has always helped me during this process with his analytical perspective. When I had big confusions about my thesis, I have consulted to him and he always positively responded to my requests. It was very illuminating for me to have such a connection.

I would like to thank all the scholars and my friends in Istanbul Şehir University for providing me with such a warm and friendly environment. I am distinctively indebted to my friend Banu Saatçi, who informed me of this master programme, and has always encouraged me with her wise instructions and valuable motivation. I express my sincere appreciations to my parents who have always supported me and also to my friends, who accept and love me for who I am.

Finally, I appreciate the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) for supporting me with Basic Sciences Graduate Scholarship Program (BIDEB) between the years of 2014-2016.

vi TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ...... iv Öz ...... v Acknowledgements ...... vi Table of Contents ...... vii List of Figures ...... ix List of Abbreviations ...... x CHAPTERS 1. INTRODUCTION ...... 1 1.1. What is Life Coaching? ...... 3 1.2. The Framework of Coaching ...... 4 1.3. The History of Coaching ...... 9 1.4. Coaching in Turkey ...... 12 1.5. Disciplinary Background of Coaching ...... 13 1.6. Methodology ...... 16 1.7. Outline of the Study ...... 21 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ...... 22 2.1. Pierre Bourdieu’s Theoretical Framework: an approach to connect social and cognitive structures ...... 24 2.1.1. The Formation of Field Struggle: capital as the source of position ...... 24 2.1.2. Coherence vs. Conflict Between Field and Habitus: the function of ‘’doxa’’ ...... 27 2.1.3. The Production and Maintenance of Social Stratification: the founded “taste” as the founder of distinction ...... 28 2.1.4. Petite Bourgeoisie: a class with “cultural good will” ...... 31 2.2. The Theory of Symbolic Interactionism: revival of agency ...... 34 2.2.1. Erving Goffman’s Theoretical Framework : the self as a dramaturgical and ritualistic performance ...... 36 2.3. Michel Foucault’s Theoretical Framework: construction of a self-technology ...... 41

vii 3. COACHING PRACTICE AS A WAY OF RECONSTRUCTING THE NEW MIDDLE CLASS HABITUS ...... 45 3.1. Neoliberal Transformation: emergence of a new life structure ...... 45 3.2. The New Middle Class ...... 49 3.3. The New Middle Class Habitus in Turkey ...... 51 3.4. Hire a Life Coach : an approach to changing inherited habitus ...... 57 3.4.1. The First Case: Ayça, 34, Higher Education ...... 61 3.4.2. The Second Case: Pelin, 31, Visual Communication ...... 63 3.5. Correspondence Between Coaches and Coachees in Terms of Habitual Conflict: is the war really over? ...... 67 3.5.1. The Third Case: Emir, 44, Life Coach, An Old Bank Director ...... 69 3.5.2. The Fourth Case: Aslı, 35, Life Coach and Visual Communication ...... 71 3.6. The Taste Mapping in the Coaching World: the omnivore style...... 72 3.7. The Transition from one Doxa to a New one: the competent individual ...... 75 4. THE AGENCY OF COACHING PRACTICE: CONFIGURATION OF A NEW SELF THROUGH A SPECIFIC REGIME OF TRUTH ...... 83 4.1. Therapeutic (Re)Construction of Selves of Coachees: a narration of a divided persona ...... 83 4.2. Does Society Really Withdraw from the Stage? ...... 87 4.3. Narrative Performance of a “Triumphant Self” ...... 90 4.4. The Use of Spiritual Techniques for Self-Change ...... 93 4.5. The Use of Rational Techniques for Self-Change ...... 96 4.6. The Transformation of Emotions: a textual and oral reconstruction of self 102 4.7. The (Re) Construction of Selves of Life Coaches ...... 107 4.8. The Dynamics of Interaction between Coaches and Coachees ...... 113 5. CONCLUSION ...... 120 REFERENCES ...... 126 APPENDIX ...... 137

viii LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1. The visual image of “wheel of life” ...... 70 Figure 4.1. The visual image of “study of values” ...... 98 Figure 4.2. The visual image of a “vision board” ...... 99

ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

HCC High cultural capital ICF International Coach Federation ICF Turkey International Coach Federation Turkey LCC Low cultural capital PPCA Professional and Personal Coaches Association

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

“I open the door of your potential” “I’m the deliverer of dreams” “I am your potential wizard” “I hold the key to success” “I unlock the doors of desires” “I’m a specialist in gap analysis - I close the gap between goals and achievement” “I’m in show business [you have probably heard this one before]: I show you how to achieve the life you want”.

These sentences are cited from the book of Curly Martin (2007 p. 48) who tries to give advice to novice life coaches about making a good impression upon people with a striking introduction of their occupation. Supposedly, increasing number of people should seek support from life coaches in order to become the coaches of their own lives in the long end. That is to say that individuals need guidance for acquiring the capacity of controlling and shaping their lives at their own wills. Because we live in the context of neo-liberal capitalistic risk society filled with infinite and ambiguous contingencies and increasingly alienated social relations, each person faces the challenge of missing their road (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 2002, P.24-25). So, nobody knows or decides which profession to choose or how to build a healthy relationship with his partner. Also, today’s people generally live in worse conditions than what was promised to them. This means that although neo-liberal system guaranteed a wide range of opportunities for an affluent and joyous life to especially educated, hardworking people before, this promise did not come true to a large extent (Şimşek, 2014, p. 211-12). In other words, many people have disappointment in their monotonous and stressful lives consisting of long hours of standardized work, which ruins creativity, and freedom of them even though especially media organs have continued to encourage free and odd lifestyles.

Within such a context, coaching has presented people a path of escape, by putting forward the belief that their embedded inner potentials have the capacity to bring

1 out a wonderful life. Simply put, it is alleged that under the guidance of a trained life coach, everybody can discover their “real selves” and realize their “real purposes” by getting rid of the external influences like social norms, signifying “the transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly” (Martin, 2012, p.13). In this way, life coaches use many rational or spiritual methods with the purpose of facilitating the self-change process of coachees in a desired way.

Although life coaching is a very newly emerging occupation, the promise of coaching techniques for the creation of a satisfied life style attracts many people to work as life coaches or to hire one. According to a 2016 study by International Coach Federation (ICF), the biggest coaching organization worldwide, there are 53,300 coaches working across the world (ICF, 2016). A research made in 2015 indicated that coaching is a markedly profitable sector with $ 2, 356, 000 revenue in total (ICF, 2016).

Within this context, my thesis aims to investigate the reconstruction of habitus and selves of life coaches and coachees through coaching practice. In addition to this main research question, I have also some supplementary questions like In what ways can the new middle class habitus be depicted?, Why and how new middle class people try to change their dispositions?, How does the vision of coaching shape individuals’ sense of self and world?, What type of a self-technology is created through coaching techniques in the process.

To carry out make this investigation, I conducted some interviews with life coaches and coachees and made use of books written by life coaches. Within the frame of my study, on the one hand I approach coaching practice as an attempt for habitus transformation as a result of trouble deriving from the conflicting manners pertaining to the new middle class in Istanbul. As will be seen, according to my findings, coaching practice belongs to the new middle class habitus. On the other hand, I am also interested in the re-creation of the perceptions of especially coachees concerning their selves and experiences through the penetration of coaching mentality as a specific unity of beliefs and techniques about self-development into their life as well.

2 My basic motivation for undertaking this study derives from my awareness about the expansion of self-development language related to coaching. Although many people underestimate life coaching and on the whole, coaching techniques or beliefs, I realized that I was somehow influenced by their advice, sayings and their ways of sense-making and their focus on personal/ spiritual development is at the center of my life and the lives of many other people. In addition, the rise in the publicity of life coaches and the growth of sections in bookstores dedicated to self-development filled with books on coaching drew my attention. Thus, I want to examine how coaching penetrates human lives so deeply and influences people’s lives and worldviews. I think this type of study contributes in important ways to comprehending the experience of the new middle class in Turkey, which is a very rarely studied topic. By researching the issues that have led to the popularity of coaching practice and the demand and formation of a new self-vision around a spiritual mentality, we can track the evolving transformation pattern in society.

1.1. What is Life Coaching? Coaching is described as “the art of facilitating the performance, learning, and development of another” (As cited in Palmer & Whybrow, 2008, p.2). Namely, the main aim of a coach is to help clients to reach their goals in certain areas of life by usage of certain coaching techniques (As cited in Grant & Stober, 2006, p.2). We can talk about a very big confusion about the types of coaching. However, Brock divides coaching into three general categories as “business”, “business and personal” and “personal” (Brock, 2008, p.271). As Grant and Cavanagh cited (2010, p.297), the basic function of life coaching is ‘’the sustainment of cognitive, emotional and behavioral changes that facilitate goal attainment and the enhancement of performance and well-being in one's life’’ which falls under Brock’s category of personal.

Here, even though Grant and Cavanagh (2010, p. 298)assert that life coaching can be made about almost every parts of human life like career, social relations, parental skills, state of health and spiritual satisfaction, rather than focusing on only one subject, they include certain things, like executive and workplace coaching, in a different category. They claim that while these coaching styles are more interested

3 in improving work performance, mostly at a corporate level, life coaching sets its sight on a persistent transformation of an individual’s attitude towards his or her own life (Grant & Cavanagh, 2010, p. 298). Nevertheless, there is some controversy about the definition and scope of life coaching. On the one hand, some experts like Grant and Cavanagh assert that life coaching is only about the development of individual well- being and performance through the changing of certain attitudes. On the other hand, some coaches like Curly Martin (2012, p. 23) claim that “life coaching” is like an umbrella term, involving coaching in all parts of life from career to parenting.

In spite of the conflict in terms of the description of life coaching, there is also agreement about some basic principles. First and foremost, coaches are interested in helping people without clinically diagnosed psychological problems. Moreover, coaches do not have generally specialized knowledge in their coaching fields, because they are not instructors but rather only facilitators of goal-focused improvement through a cooperative relation between coach and coachee (As cited in Grant & Stober, 2006, p. 3). On the other hand, life coaches also usually adhere to the idea of “there is no point in raking over the coals” and they deal with the present and future of coachees (Martin, 2012, p. 36). By and large, the basic struggle of coaches is the conversion of some prohibitory (negative) beliefs of people concerning achievement, wealth or self-confidence which hinder them from realizing their dreams into useful values (Martin, 2012, p. 22).

1.2. The Framework of Coaching The practice of coaching has its roots in spiritual or psychological movements dating back to the “New Thought” movement that arose in the late nineteenth century (Clarke, 2006, p. 458). This movement was initiated by a women called Emma Curtis Hopkins who devoted herself to the healing methods of ‘’Cristian Science’’ and afterwards developed her own way of healing in more spiritual terms (Clarke, 2006, p. 458). Her views were based on the idea that people are indeed the pieces of God whose power can be unfolded by forming relationship with the one and only divine entity (Clarke, 2006, p. 459). This mentality was expanded and publicized through

4 several organizations that promoted New Thought guidelines in diverse ways (York, 2004, p. 133).

Then, in the context of the post-World War 2 period, Abraham Maslow laid the foundations of “humanistic psychology” (Clarke, 2006, p. 286). He withstood the dominating psychological theories of his time by claiming that they degraded humanity with their deterministic explanations about what underlies different human behaviors (Clarke, 2006, p. 390). The fundamental aim of this perspective was to help individuals reach the highest place anyone can ever arrive in the world, called “self-actualization”, where everyone can recognize and fulfill the essence of his or her unique existence (Clarke, 2006, p. 287). However, the followers of this viewpoint asserted that on account of restrictive social conditions, a great number of people could not become developed selves, having tranquility, mindfulness and tenderness for all beings (As cited in Stockdale, 1973, p. 24).

Resting essentially upon these type of suggestions, what is called “Human Potential Movement” emerged and spread fast, supported by rebellious soul of the 1960’s (Clarke, 2006, p. 286). This occurrence can be considered as both a communal event and also an embodiment of myriad therapy styles, philosophical views, and some spiritual practices, dedicated to the self-development of people without serious psychological disorders (As cited in Spence, 2007, p. 258). Broadly speaking, the expansion process is mainly facilitated by the formation of various “encounter groups” (also called Training or T-groups). This title refers to the gathering of a group of people in order to enhance their awareness about their egos and social relationships through the use of certain techniques in an interactive way (As cited in Spence, 2007, p. 257-58). In the company of these collective trainings, a large variety of books were written and multifarious centers were founded out of which the most famous one is “Esalen” Institute by Michael Murphy, encouraging the discovery of personal potentials (Clarke, 2006, p. 287).

Nonetheless, from the 1970’s, the movement started to lose its strength, in consequence of troubles related to the extinction of scientifically justified

5 perspective based on researches about human nature and the search of the followers for different methods which can supply with more authentic experiences for them (Clarke, 2006, p. 286; As cited in Spence, 2007, p. 258-259). Following this, in a similar vein, “Large-Group Awareness Training” events showed up. These were events where a certain number of people try to change their vision of life and their selves by implementing certain spiritual or psychological techniques under the leadership of some coordinator people over a short but intense period of time (As cited in Klar et al., 1990, p. 99).

Within this context, Western societies especially were witness to the rise of the “New Age Movement” in the wake of the relative decline of the monotheistic religions as a result of secularization period and the concomitant pursuit of an internally founded jurisdiction in the face of the slippery ground of post-modern world without any authority to provide instructions for life (Frisk, 1998, p. 199; Sennett, 2012, p. 117). This can be described as the penetration of a distinct mentality into everyday life, resting upon an amalgamation of various doctrines deriving from separate belief systems (As cited in Main, 2006, p. 10). It also alludes to the transition from the “Age of Pisces” centered on malignancy to the “Age of Aquarius” in which kindness and conformity would hit its peak in astrological terms (Berg, 2008, p. 361).

According to Paul Heelas, the key tenet of the movement hinges on the concept of “self-spirituality.” This concept signifies that social norms corrupt the personal divine quality by imposing some delimited rules and arguments and that people should try to clean this contaminated part of their selves, called the “ego” (As cited in Religio, 2000, p. 425). People are able to find what is called their “authentic selves” by the help of a fellow traveler, not an instructor via the use of spiritual methods like meditation (Frisk, 1998, p.199; York, 2004, p. 5). In this road, some metaphysical beliefs were also put forward such as the law of attraction, sending positive vibrations to the universe, or the power of positive thinking (As cited in Ekşi, 2012, p.130). Through these kind of individual experiences, this movement encouraged its followers to sense the divine interdependence between all creatures including God

6 based on “love” by passing beyond any kind of duality and reaching unity (As cited in Berg, 2008, pp. 363-65).

All these proposals considered, some perceived the New Age movement as a deviation from the modern rational world of thought (As cited in Religio, 2000, p. 425). It must be affirmed that to a great extent, new age thinking objects to the addiction to materiality and mechanization of people with rationalization in every part of life, away from any source of spirituality. (Berg, 2008, p.364) Notwithstanding this, however, it is also dramatically feeding from modern reasoning with its emphasis on control over negative emotions by highlighting positive thinking, encouragements of excellence and progression towards high level development stages (Berg, 2008, p. 366; Religio, 2000, p. 426). To put in another way, this movement might be seen as an approach to “re-enchantment” of the universe by consecrating individuals as sovereign gods of their own worlds with a blended code of both religious and scientific remarks (As cited in Main, 2006, p.12-17).

As for the 1990s, “Positive psychology” became known through incentives of Martin E. P. Seligman, as a successor to humanistic psychology (Robbins, 2008, p. 96). Broadly speaking, the supporters of this view allege that for a very long time, psychological research and theories have been built on various psychological disorders by eliminating the majority of society without clinically diagnosed trouble (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000, p. 5). Indeed, for this very reason, this theory stressed the necessity of investigating, revealing, and inducing positive personal traits like sensitiveness, resolution and mindfulness (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000, p. 5). To put it differently, positive psychology mainly tries to incite the feeling of well- being in every part of people’s lives by suggesting instruction instead of demolishing problematical behaviors (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000, p. 7-9). Here, a main distinction should be made between “pleasure” and “enjoyment.” The former derives from more hedonistic and superficial acts, that offer short time reward, while the latter brings about a permanent state of well-being by virtue of experiences allowing self-realization and self-development (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000, p.12). It is without doubt that the perspective constitutively stands up for the ways of long-term

7 and authentic joy relying on a self with positive personality characteristics (As cited in Robbins, 2008, p. 100-101).

This whole period is theorized as the “subjective turn” by social scientists. This conceptualization refers to the transformation of the source of authority from external/transcendent being(s) to an individual’s own inner self in the postmodern era (Heelas, Woodhead, Seel, Tusting, & Szerszynski, 2005, p. 2). Formerly, people complied with the orders of some big structures like nation-state, religion, or family. Here, most valuable act is to fulfill responsibilities in line with the determined attributions about us made by the authorities (Heelas et al., 2005, p. 3). However, on the track of the mentioned movements, there has been an inclination towards a “subjective life” based on making contact with the authentic self (Heelas et al., 2005, p. 3). Accordingly, people have started to see life as a way of discovering themselves, reaching their pure inner voices, and experiencing communication with the unique authority embedded in their existence (Taylor, 1991, p. 29).

In such a context, all the studies, activities, and occupations also began to take shape with regard to subjective-life myth. This new formation is called “wellbeing culture” and its only purpose is to provide people with opportunities for personal experiences (Heelas et al., 2005, p. 84). At this juncture, Heelas makes an significant distinction between two types of subjectivism called “individuated subjectivism” and “other relational subjectivism.” The former consists of the view of a self-sufficient person who lives his/her uniqueness through ownership of some external resources like having a lux car or a prestigious profession. On the other hand, the latter includes the discovery of inner world by interacting with other people (Heelas et al., 2005, p. 96- 97). This reasoning is parallel with the above-mentioned difference between pleasure and enjoyment. I mean that individuated subjectivism originates a materialistic life that gives people instantaneous pleasures, whereas other relational subjectivism promises a deeper moral and emotional improvement through sincere relationships.

In this respect, coaching can be seen as both a product and a reproducer of the spreading obsession of “self-actualization.” Many people need and appeal to this

8 motivational tool in order to disclose their distinctive personhoods by making more money, having perfectly fit bodies or forming better relationships with their partners with the help of the coaches. This indicates that coaches attract a lot of clients for their assurance of material or spiritual evolvement at the end of the sessions. At the same time, these type of claims and expressions render the supposed mission of “finding oneself” a popular but compelling issue through creating and reinforcing a new terminology, which imposes egocentricity in every parts of the daily life.

1.3. The History of Coaching The term “coach” stems originally from the name of a region in Hungary while it gained a secondary meaning of “instructor” since the 1830s onwards (Bachkirova, Cox & Clutterbuck, 2010, p. 2). Afterwards, this concept was used to qualify trainers assisting athletes in the world of sport (Bachkirova et al., 2010, p. 2). In the first half of the twentieth century, what is called “internal coaching” developed referring to top executives coaching to the novice ones in order to increase their work performances (As cited in Grant & Cavanagh, 2004, p.6). Also, throughout this period, “counselors, therapists or psychologists” began to consult business people by supporting them in terms of psychological issues (As cited in Brock, 2008, p. 381). In the ongoing process from the 1960s until the mid-1970s, these “counseling” executives continued to expand in business life side by side with “work place” counseling based on the interaction between internal coach and the sublevel employee (As cited in Brock, 2008, p. 167- 384).

However, the most important event in respect to the development of coaching discipline in these times was the emergence of “Erhard Sensitivity Training” by Werner Erhard in 1971 (As cited in Brock, 2008, p.297). He was a very substantial person in such a way that he brought a unique rhetoric of coaching up by appealing to certain standpoints. In addition, he markedly contributed to the recognition of coaching by training many people about techniques of potential improvement (As cited in Brock, 2008, p. 297). It is also very crucial to articulate that Timothy Gallwey who was professionally interested in tennis, wrote a book called “The Inner Game of Tennis” in 1974. He asserted that the real inhibitor of people’ performance is their

9 inherent troubles (Whitmore, 2002, p. 8). However, a coach supporting a person to find and resolve these problems, can help that person to use his or her whole potential (Whitmore, 2002, p. 8). Simply put, the core principle of coaching was presented by Gallwey as “coaching is not about teaching some technical information, but rather, a way for facilitation of fulfilment of individual potentials” (Whitmore, 2002, p. 8).

Despite all these developments, the essential breaking point signifying the emergence of coaching as a sector and a specialized and systematic discipline was the entrance of Thomas Leonard into the stage (As cited in Brock, 2008, p. 312). Indeed, initially he was in charge of accounting in Erhard’s company, but in time, by drawing on both his business and coaching information, he revealed a certain methodology of coaching which is applicable to every issue (As cited in Brock, 2008, p. 312). In this road, he also started to give big seminars about “life planning” in the later 1980s (As cited in Brock, 2008, p. 312). In these years, we can also see the rise of ‘’business coaching’’ as an area of expertise, encouraged by the reputation of leadership trainings (As cited in Brock, 2008, p. 386). In this sense, the establishment of “Personal Decisions International” in 1981 as “the first management consulting company offering a coach program” and “Transformational Technologies” in 1984 as a “consulting firm using Erhard’s coaching manners in an effort to support business world” (As cited in Brock, 2008, p. 387).

In 1987, the prominent figures of the coaching sector gathered to exhibit what can be called a “coaching manifesto” which included twelve items (As cited in Brock, 2008, p. 388). Here, they particularly emphasized that coaching is a distinctive model of self-development based on the collaboration between coach and coachee (As cited in Brock, 2008, p. 388). One of most striking detection was the ignorance of coaching as a new method under the influence of conventional and rigid mindset (As cited in Brock, 2008, p. 388).

Since the 1990s, the coaching industry has expanded enormously so much so that considerable numbers of foundations giving coaching education have formed and

10 thousands of coaches with various certification have appeared all around the world (Brock, 2008, p.393). To illustrate, in 1991, some students of Erhard founded “Landmark Education”, which is a pioneering-training center in the sector. On top of all that in 1995, Thomas Leonard founded the “International Coach Federation” in the USA (As cited in Brock, 2008, p. 396). This is the biggest organization of coaching and its main aim is to standardize coaching education universally and in this way open the road for the professionalization of coaching (As cited in Brock, 2008, p. 396). According to the “ICF Global Coaching Study” made in 2016, 20,000 coaches have been certified affirmed by the ICF (ICF, 2016). So, nowadays, we can widely mention about the presence of a “coaching culture” wherever the mentality of coaching has penetrated into the operations of business or interactions (As cited in Brock, 2008, p. 399).

When it comes to elucidating the history of “life coaching” more specifically, some acts of executive coaches who are independent coaches, trying to increase people’ work performance in firms especially, or counseling executives can be construed as semi-life coaching (Grant & Cavanagh, 2010, p. 297). This is because they are generally obliged to deal with the private matters of the employees as well with a solution-focused style in order to solve seemingly work-related problems.

However, some coaches have contributed to the development of life coaching as a distinct branch. As suggested before, Leonard’s programs called “Life creates Your Life” had a big impact (As cited in Brock, 2008, p. 314). So too did Jinny Ditzler who made counseling sessions called “Personal Effectiveness Plan” in her center of “Results Unlimited” from the 1980s onwards (As cited in Brock, 2008, p. 431). Besides, Laura Whitworth, who co-founded the “Professional and Personal Coaches Association (PPCA)” in 1995, started to make seminars called “Design Your Life” in 1989 (As cited in Brock, 2008, p.315-391). So, all these programs paved the way for the emergence of “life coaches” as different from other coaching types.

11 1.4. Coaching in Turkey With the integration of Turkey into the neo-liberal world order from the 1980s onwards, which will be explained in more detail in following chapters, some big social changes have started to happen in various areas. The increasing consumer culture and orientation towards individualization coming from competitive business life are the building stones of the new socio-economic environment (Ahıska & Yenal, 2006, p. 56-60). Also, in this process, a variety of different identities like Islamic, feminist or Kurdish which were suppressed came into prominence and they have started to become discussible issues within the age of “statement explosion" signifying extreme encouragement of describing and proclaiming every social/personal phenomenon as Gürbilek (2011, p. 9-41) put it.

In such an entangled atmosphere, psychologists and also some personal development specialists began to appear in media organs (Ekşi, 2012, p. 147). Considering the whole picture, this situation can be seen as the reflection of the transition of a more collective-based thinking filled with social values to individualistic, strategic, and self-oriented thinking bringing the pattern of “strike it rich” out as an ideal life vision (As cited in Ahıska & Yenal, 2006, p. 9-56-57). Here, on the one hand, there was a need for psychological support in such a huge transformation period, replete with uncertainty, to protect people from the formation of “anomie.”1 On the other hand, this new social setting led to psychological introspection and an accompanying search for self-development thanks to the myth of success and its reward of an affluent life style (Ahıska & Yenal, 2006, p. 56; Ekşi, 2012, p. 147).

In this road, in the 1980s and especially in the 1990s, Oğuz Saygın, Turgay Biçer, Mümin Sekman and Doğan Cüceloğlu became the prominent personal development specialists with their book and seminars (Ekşi, 2012, p. 150). This circumstance promoted the emanation of self-change rhetoric based on the construction of the successful person in every sphere of life (As cited in Ekşi, 2012, p.152-53). In this

1 The term used by Durkheim as “a condition in which society provides little moral guidance to individuals.” (Macionis& Plummer, 2012, p.125)

12 ongoing process, the life coaches emerged in the first decade of twenty-first century as supposedly professional people in terms of providing clients with private self- development sessions including the practice of mentioned rhetoric.

Fatoş Ayvaz was the first life coach in Turkey who got training about coaching in 2003 in England (Esenyurt Haber, 2014). Afterwards, the number of coaches began to rise and in 2005, consequently, ICF Turkey was founded as a step towards institutionalization and its existence was officialized in 2009 (ICF Turkey, 2017). The recognition of coaching as an occupation took place in 2013 (Cumhuriyet Gazetesi, 2013). Adler, Erickson, Life Coach Training, Marefidelis, Navitas, Livcon, Koçluk Merkezi, As, Karizma, and Fa Coach are the most prominent centers giving coaching education in Turkey (Çelebi, 2011).

1.5. Disciplinary Background of Coaching The first paper about coaching was written by C. B. Gorby in 1937 to examine internal coaching in firms. From the beginning period of coaching studies until the 1960s,the majority of articles were about superficial expositions of internal coaching on the track of Gorby (As cited in Grant & Cavanagh, 2004, p. 6). After the 1960s, research started to be carried out in more academic terms related to similar topics, within the scope of “business literature” (As cited in Grant &Cavanagh, 2004, p. 7; Brock, 2008, p. 164). In this manner, Gershman made the first doctorate study about coaching, focusing on ways of well-functioning of internal coaching (As cited in Grant & Cavanagh, 2004, p. 7). Throughout the 1980s, the general trend of concentration on coaching branches in work environments continued and several books were written in order to propound a well-defined coaching templet (Brock, 2008, p. 31-168).

When it came to the decade of 1990s, there was an explosion in the numbers of research-based papers, often making use of the results of large case studies about the effectiveness of coaching techniques (Grant & Cavanagh, 2004, p. 7-8). In this period, 129 articles were published related to the topic of coaching, which shows that coaching became an area of academic interest in the strictest sense towards the end of the century (Brock, 2008, p.170). At about the same time, various approaches were

13 developed towards coaching based on the implementation of particular psychological theories into the coaching models (Grant & Cavanagh, 2004, p. 9). As a case in point, John Whitmore who affected coaching world markedly with his “GROW” model hinging on an interactive goal-attainment process drew on “transpersonal psychology”, whose main conviction is the perception of the individual in terms of possession of a spiritual side (Bezos, 2009; As cited in Rowan, 2010, p. 146).

Grant states that the number of studies made until 2005 was 417, the greater part of which were published in the final decade of the period (As cited in Brock, 2008, p. 31). In this recent period, the most significant development was that coaching came to be seen as an arranged mechanism, allowing the investigation of human behavior from certain aspects (Grant & Cavanagh, 2004, p. 9). Relatedly, there was an inclination towards the structuring of “evidence-based coaching”, referring to the justification of the coaching discipline by putting contemporary research findings into practice in coaching sessions (As cited in Brock, 2008, p. 256).

However, most of this developing knowledge base was on the functions of executive coaching and the literature about life coaching is very limited (Grant & Cavanagh, 2004, p. 9; Brock, 2008, p. 31). Specific to this latter domain, A. M. Grant wrote the first paper in 2003 from more of a psychological viewpoint. This article centered upon the effects of life coaching on individual’s life and was entitled “The impact of life coaching on goal attainment, metacognition, and mental health” (As cited in Grant & Cavanagh, 2004, p. 9). Today, there are a good deal of books about becoming an effective life coach or the ways of marketing for life coaches that do not adopt a scientific epistemology. Nonetheless, as Grant & Cavanagh (2004, p. 9) have said, we can expect deliberately more empirical studies about life coaching with the improvement of evidence-based coaching and the increasing expansion of this field.

Considering the sociological literature about coaching in private, as a matter of fact, we can talk about a condition of unfruitfulness. Broadly speaking, sociologic studies approach coaching as a newly emerging service job in the setting of the neo-liberal

14 system. This matter is usually investigated under the heading of work sociology. As an example, there is an article called “Seeking Legitimacy: The Professionalization of Life Coaching” by Molly George (2013), focusing on the ongoing process of transformation of life coaching from an occupation to a profession. In Turkey, Selin Önen (2015) published an article called “Yeni Kapitalizmin Çelişkileri Bağlamında Yaşam Koçluğu Mesleğinin Değerlendirilmesi” (The Evaluation of The Occupation of Life Coaching in the Context of Contradictions of New Capitalism), in which she calls attention to individualized risk society as eliciting a need for life coaches. Apart from that, the book of “Sociology of Sport Coaching” (Jones, Potrac, Cusion & Ronglan, 2011) can be thought as a peculiar study, which profoundly problematizes this issue through sociological lenses. Within the scope of this book, coaching practice in the sport field is scrutinized by appealing to the major sociological theories of Goffman, Foucault, and Bourdieu.

In contrast to the considerable lack of sociological research about coaching, psychological studies have been increasing by leaps and bounds every passing day. It goes without saying that coaching has fundamental connections with psychology in diverse ways (Brock, 2008, p. 32). As said before, even in the infancy period of coaching, psychologists worked as counseling executives in parallel with coaching insight. However, if we particularly focus on the empirical studies about coaching from a psychological perspective, actually, it dates back to very early times (Palmer & Whybrow, 2007, p. 4). Coleman R. Griffith, a fellow at the University of Illinois, wrote a book called “Psychology of Coaching” in 1926, in which he highlighted coaching in the sport world as a way of personality construction (As cited in Palmer & Whybrow, 2007, p. 5). In the ongoing process, coaching models have been constructed mainly based upon various psychological theories or discoveries (Brock, 2008, p. 29). Especially since the 1990s, a lot of articles have been written in journals from certain psychological perspectives on the work of coaching (As cited in Brock, 2008, p. 29).

Nevertheless, the emergence of “coaching psychology” as sub-field of psychology is the real turning point in this regard. This area is described as “the systematic

15 application of behavioral science to the enhancement of life experience, work performance and well-being for individuals, groups and organizations who do not have clinically significant mental health issues or abnormal levels of distress” (Grant, 2007, p.23). The psychology departments of the Sydney and City University opened special units for coaching psychology, respectively in 2000 and 2005, which represented an academic step for the field (Grant, 2007, p.24). Psychologists who specialize in coaching psychology use commonly cognitive psychological views or findings in order to come up with more evidence-based coaching (As cited in Palmer & Whybrow, 2007, p.9; Brock, 2008, p. 257).

1.6. Methodology My study mainly relies on qualitative research conducted in Istanbul. Qualitative research refers to the exploration of socially situated events or experiences by transforming interpretable data through creating their representations in the form of ethnography or interviews (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005, p. 3). In this way, this style of research provides researchers with an extensive opportunity to position the personal or societal meanings attached to the subject in question within a certain hermeneutical context (As cited in Silverman, 2014, p. 5). For this reason, I find reasonable to make a qualitative research in order to investigate the narratives of life coaches and coachees in their own right and also in connection with the wider social environment.

Within this scope, I draw upon the qualitative research methods of in-depth interviews as a basis and also document analysis as a complementary source of examination. Let me begin with my approach towards interviewing, which is based on the idea that the interview is a mutual meaning production practice (Holstein & Gubrium, 1999, p. 106).An interview derives from the interaction between the researcher and respondent, and is rooted in the specific context of immediate communicative exchange (Holstein & Gubrium, 1999, p. 106). To put it differently, successive turns of question and replies and accompanying emotions or reflexive arguments towards oneself and the other constitutes a new structure of sense- making in the process of interviewing (As cited in Paget, 1999, p. 91-92; Holstein &

16 Gubrium, 1999, p. 106). Thus, we can attribute an active role to the respondent, rather than conventional view, which rests upon the objectification of interviewees as means of reaching clear-cut information (Holstein & Gubrium, 1999, p. 108-109). Here, there is a certain framework of interview in relation to the main topic of the conversation, bringing apparent restrictions in terms of running of dialogue owing to the fact that every theme is the part of a socio-cultural context, which draws a line on appropriate exposition of them (Gubrium & Holstein, 1998, p. 166). In spite of this, we also talk about an emergence of unique performances, with both sides fashioning and compounding experiences through a subjective narration (As cited in Gubrium & Holstein, 1998, p. 166). Indeed, to find out this mutually created discourse layer and to allow the construction of performative narrations, I make use of the interviews abundantly in my research.

In this way, in the beginning, I made a web search to reach the contact information of life coaches in Istanbul. After this stage, I used a “purposive sampling method”, denoting the selection of a group of people with specific features from a certain population (Ritchie & Lewis, 2003, p. 79). In this sense, considering the biographical knowledge in the Internet, I identified almost 10 life coaches who have updated web sites and possess at least three-four years’ experience in coaching and also who are certified coaches. I interviewed seven life coaches in total, all of whom reached through e-mails except one person with whom I made contact through my social networks. For four of them, life coaching is their one and only occupation, while for three of them, life coaching is a secondary job along with visual communication, teaching and public relations.

In addition to this, I also had interviews with six coachees. While finding proper coaching clients to interview, I generally used “snowball sampling” methodology. This means that I asked the life coaches during interviews whether they had any clients who would be willing to meet with me (Ritchie & Lewis, 2003, p. 94). In this road, I found four coachees to interview through the medium of coaches. I found the other two coachees through personal connections. My only criteria in selecting coachees, was that they must have taken at least four sessions of coaching in advance, because

17 for a lot of life coaches, this is the minimal limit to constitute a coaching schedule with clients. They have very diverse occupations including academician, mechanical engineer, visual communication specialist, student, salesperson on social media and employee of a business intelligence company.

The majority of my respondents are female with the number of 10 out of 13. Their age scale distributes between 24 to 52, even though there is only two person in total under the age of 30 and over the age of 50. All of them is at least university graduates. Mostly, the interviews were done in cafes and took about one or two hours. I recorded all the interviews with the permission of respondents and then I transcribed them.

In an attempt to engender an interactive interview context, opening a more flexible space for self-assertions, I made semi-structured interviews. That is to say, although I had some pre-prepared questions about the process of becoming a life coach or hiring a life coach, some of them were asked in a different way according to the respondent, and some spontaneous questions were articulated as well. Besides, away from the obsession of neutrality, on the track of Douglas’s “creative interviewing” procedure in some respects, I tried to establish a warm and comfortable relation with respondents by including myself also in the sharing of experiences. I think that this is the way to develop of a more authentic interaction (Holstein & Gubrium, 1999, p. 111). Additionally, by adhering to the main principle of “active interviewing” I strived to raise questions which would enable respondents to have a room to construct their own narratives, whether coherent or conflicting (Holstein & Gubrium , 1999, p. 117). However, at the same time, I was careful to ensure that the interviews progressed within the borders of my fundamental research questions (Holstein & Gubrium , 1999, p. 118).

Given the elements that have been defined, we can now go on to look at the analysis part of the interviews. To do this, basically I had recourse to “narrative analysis” as a qualitative data analysis methodology. Narrative implies a specific assembly of certain experiences by individual(s) in such a manner that a meaningfully and

18 coherently arranged story results (As cited in Wiles, Rosenberg & Kearns, 2005, p. 90). As a whole, narration represents a unique construction of subjectivities, by benefiting from a bunch of diverse discourses, positioned in the wider context of socio-cultural environment (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005, p. 659).

In this way, I handled all my interviews as narrations about the relationship between interviewers’ construction of life or self and the coaching practice/mentality (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005, p. 660). Here, I treat the stories as cooperatively constituted structures in the local atmosphere of the interview (As cited in Denzin & Lincoln, 2005, p. 657). Because narrative analysis provides researchers with the chance to have a deeper comprehension regarding people’ framing of the issues, this type of analysis will be made in the middle section of my thesis.

Concerning my approach to narrative analysis, I used mainly the perspective of Gubrium and Holstein (1998, p.166), which focuses on both the “how’s” and “what’s” of the interviews. This means respectively that the way the identities and roles are formed as part of interactional dimension during the interview, and the tangible content of interview comprising of all verbalized knowledge. Accordingly, people establish representations by activating their sources of narration in a particular way, taking into account the existence of present and non-present audiences, and also the social context (world of making-sense) pertaining to the topic in question (Gubrium & Holstein, 1998, p. 166). Therefore, on the one hand I paid attention to the “narrative linkages” through which different sections of the stories were articulated, in such a way that introducing a certain narration justified the central emotion or argument of the person (Gubrium & Holstein, 1998, p. 166). This is parallel with Labov’s mention of the “evaluation” part as most significant in the narrations (As cited in Wiles et al., 2005, p. 91). He made this kind of specification due to the fact that through some assessments, people try to draw a frame to be put into use by considering others’ possible interpretations of their expressions (As cited in Wiles et al., 2005, p. 91).

19 I also took into consideration that the individuals always make some ‘’shiftings’’ while relating their narrations (Gubrium & Holstein, 1998, p. 170). This means that people pay regard to the socially situated semantic world in which their sayings will be appreciated, by molding their narrations according to presently seen or predicted expectations or reactions (Gubrium & Holstein, 1998, p. 170). Undoubtedly, the interviewees can never totally depict a perfectly managed image; however, following Labov’s principle, the most crucial thing for researchers is to grasp people’ changing intentions in the course of narrations (As cited in Wiles et al., 2005, p. 92).

As for document analysis, I mainly consult to several books published by various life coaches or on the web sites of life coaches. These books included works dealing with the execution of some personal change procedures along with coaches’ own experiences about their transformation process in terms of their life vision. In this context, I benefited from the books of “Evrenden Torpilim Var” (2011) and “Artık Zenginim” (2015) by Aykut Oğut, “Hayatını Seç” (2014) and “Hayatını Değiştir” (2015) by Mert Çuhadaroğlu, “Fark Et, Uygula, Değiş” (2013) by Arzu Bıyıklıoğlu, “Cesur Sorular” (2005) by Dost Can Deniz and “Evrenin İlahi Dili” (2016) by Bülent Gardiyanoğlu. In addition to these, web sites provided me a significant material with regards to any investigation of the presentation and construction of life coaching. In this road, I drew upon the web sites “www.esradorum.com” and “www.arzubiyiklioglu.com.” As a complementary source, I also made use of certain web sites and a magazine to reveal the critical views of coaching including “www.canakkaleolay.com”, “www.birgun.net, “www.aksam.com.tr” and also Nihayet magazine.

Document analysis signifies the systematic examination and interpretation of written or visual materials (Bowen, 2009, p. 27). Documents are not a pile of objective information, but are rather, socially constructed within deliberate frames in order to convey certain messages to readers (Flick, 2014, p. 369). With such an attitude, I analyzed the representation of knowledge about coaching techniques and also the basic beliefs pertaining to the coaching mindset in books and on websites by trying to resolve the background of what I heard during the interviews. While doing this, I

20 utilized the fundamentals of content and thematic analysis by forming general topic categorizations or coding (Bowen, 2009, p. 32). This allowed me to comprehend the agency of certain conceptualizations, collectively reflecting a hermeneutical world of thought that facilitated a special type of narrative performance.

1.7. Outline of the Study My thesis includes three main chapters. In the second chapter, I draw a theoretical framework for my analysis by explaining the main concepts and approaches used in the following chapters. As for the third chapter, I introduce the restructuring of selfhood and various parts of life, under the influence of the neo-liberal system. Then, I investigate habitual conflict and the accompanying demand for coaching practice in the new middle class of Istanbul. While doing this, I depict this habitus in terms of the reproduction strategies of education and gender and the configuration of taste of omnivore. By trying to delineate the attempt for a habitus-change, I trace the creation of a new doxa called “competent individual” by negating the prevailing doxas in society, which also generates a new kind of self-disciplinary mechanism of panopticon.

In the fourth chapter, I look at transformations in terms of self-construal on the side of both coaches and coachees through the use of spiritual and rational coaching techniques. In this sense, I focus on the construction of a therapeutic narration based on structuring a successful biography by asserting this process as an approach to reach ideal self-images. I analyze the interaction between coachees and life coaches as an embodiment of a “middle stage” that includes both the ongoing performances during the sessions and the preparation process for daily life. This complicated interaction is also characterized as the instilment of a specific emotional rhetoric to the coachees by coaches.

In the conclusion part, after summarizing my fundamental findings, I point out the limitations of this study and I tell how I try to overcome them. Also, I give suggestions for future studies in this area. Then, I present my reference list. I conclude my thesis by exhibiting the original interview quotes, which are used in this study.

CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Within the scope of my thesis, I make use of certain theories and conceptualizations of Pierre Bourdieu, Erving Goffman and Michael Foucault. While doing interviews and reading the books written by life coaches, I always encountered the confessed need, wish, and methods to change people’s “unconsciously acquired wrong beliefs” and “automatically mobilized argumentations or manners in any issue” (Çuhadaroğlu, 2014, p. 31). Supposedly, these rooted assessments constitute a fixed perspective, running throughout the lives of people unless they try to obtain new ones with a conscious programming. This depiction indicates me a possible existence of a unity of dispositions and claim for the transformation of them. In this way, I decided to use the theoretical model of Bourdieu based on a specific structuring of social stratification. Because habitus reflects a presence of specific class conditions, I tried to look at the class status of respondents by tracing their stories regarding business life, private life, or social environment. This reveals the configuration of a new middle class habitus, in which I include life coaches and coachees due to their specific characteristics. In this sense, I started to treat coaching as a practice, which has showed in a definite social layer, as a consequence of the ongoing conflict between the confounding proper course of actions, being inoculated to subjects as part of their socialization process.

Here, I conceptualize a conflict between the inherited and the educationally acquired habitus of respondents because of their desire to change accompanied by their lack of capacity to do so, which leads to the request for coaching. So, thanks to this kind of analysis, I am able to position the emergence and operation of the coaching occupation and its accompanying mindset in a social context as both of a product of a certain class setting and also a contributor to it. Simply put, my study necessitates a construction of a relation between the social and concomitant mental structures that are explained by Bourdieu in a profound way.

22 In this context, particularly in order to examine mentioned role of coaching practice in terms of (re)constructing the new middle class habitus, I need a more micro theory through which the sense-making of both coaches and coachees with regards to their relation with own selves can be analyzed in the context of interaction along the sessions. In this way, I especially draw upon the dramaturgical perspective of Goffman. This unique point of view provides me with the opportunity to interpret the ways of performing a new selfhood via the exchange of meanings attached to the spiritual or rational coaching techniques. Here, by tracking their role management along the coaching process, I am able to construe the specific fabrication of a sense of self as a mutual product of an amorphous interaction between coaches and coachees. Bluntly put, this is the point where I can observe the approach for habitus transformation, because it is basically about the enacting of a new perception about one’s own positioning in the social scape.

However, these self-performances and representations are built upon the creation and enacting of a generic unity of significations. In this manner, following Foucault’s remark on the formation of self-technology, I also try to put forward the constitution and instillation of a new emotional language and a new panopticon, which facilitate a perpetual act of self-monitoring. On this point, on the one hand, I again speak of a struggle for habitus change through the creation of different emotions by appealing to the certain methods. On the other hand, I can scrutinize the production of selves in terms of representing the incarnation of postmodern therapeutical self-knowledge as a power generating-system. In this way, it can be shown that the alleged revelation of the “true self” as a fundamental aim of coaching practice as a process for the embodiment of ideal personality discourses by expounding the rhetoric used in interviews or books. In a word, by using the theory of Foucault, I am able to present the “regime of truth” invented through the coaching mechanism.

23 2.1. Pierre Bourdieu’s Theoretical Framework: an approach to connect social and cognitive structures 2.1.1. The Formation of Field Struggle: capital as the source of position In an attempt to overcome the structure-agency dichotomy, Bourdieu tries to come up with a more dialectical model. It is based on the claim that while agents cannot be seen only as mechanic reflections of the so-called big structures, at the same time, they also are not completely independent and rational beings making decisions in line with their calculated interests (As cited in Tatlıcan & Çeğin, 2010, p. 307). According to this relational theory, objective structures are internalized by agents as “a system of acquired dispositions functioning on the practical level as categories of perception or assessment or as classificatory principles” called “habitus” as a structured structure (Bourdieu, 1990, p. 13).

In the light of this depiction, Bourdieu claims that the habitus is either inherited from family, mostly in an unconscious way, or acquired through self-perpetuating activities, especially education, with a deliberate endeavor (As cited in Arun, 2014, p.168). Here also, as a structuring structure, habitus generates some practices (position-takings) in line with “the objective conditions of which it is the product” (As cited in Reed- Danahay, 2005, p. 22). These practices almost always show up without consciously planned programs, because the “generative schemes” built by habitus have already inoculated the agents to a certain type of understanding about the world of possibilities versus impossibilities by building categories of what is appropriate and what is not (Bourdieu, 2002, p.278 ; Bourdieu, 1977, p. 76). In this sense, even though the agents generally suppose that they move and act through their free wills, indeed, their preconditioned intuition in terms of orientation towards certain types of actions shape their behaviors by constructing an image of “everything is as it should be” (Bourdieu, 2015b, p.234).

Through this sense of direction given by dispositions, people acquire some positions in the social space including specific “fields”, which refers to “networks of objective and relative relations between positions of agents” (Bourdieu& Wacquant, 2014, p. 81). In every field, there is a struggle about the description of the rules of that field

24 and also about the distribution of power (Kaya, 2010, p. 400-407), because, in general, there is a discrepancy between the interests of the people with dominating positions in a field who try to maintain their existing place and the new comers or oppressed agents in the field whose aim is to challenge the established hierarchy (Kaya, 2010, p. 401).

In all of the fields, there are specifically valuable types of capital, the sources of power that can be put into place in mentioned battles, and which determine the positions of agents according to their level of possessions (As cited in Kaya, 2010, p. 402 ; Öztürk, 2005, p.253). By and large, agents try to obtain more of the prevailing capital of the fields to have a dominant position within the borders of the field in the question (Bourdieu, 2002, p. 263). To do this, they appeal to some not totally calculated strategies according to the developing conditions regarding the patterns of struggle (Kaya, 2010, p. 403). At this point, the persistence about the becoming in the field battle derives from the belief in this battle as being valuable in terms of investment through using of various capitals called “illusion” (Bourdieub, 2015, p. 143).

Within this framework, we can talk about diverse types of fields, such as the political, artistic, literary, religious, and economic (Bourdieu, 2002, p. 263). The field of power is the upmost field, as it regulates the organization of power relations in all the other fields (Kaya, 2010, p.416). In this power field, the fields are positioned in terms of their relevant capital type in such a way that the economic field has the biggest authority (Kaya, 2010, p.416). The fields in which the cultural capital is dominant, like the field of art or education, gain autonomy to constitute their own regulations as long as decreasing the value of the economic interests in comparison with cultural competence via development of experts (Kaya, 2010, p.404).

Bourdieu distinguishes four different kinds of capital: economic, cultural, social, and symbolic. These are “accumulated labors that, when appropriated on a private, i.e., exclusive, basis by agents or groups of agents, enables them to appropriate social energy in the form of reified or living labor” (Bourdieu, 1986, p.46). Economic capital

25 denotes the possession of some property of value in monetary terms, whereas social capital is acquired through social relations that require a perpetual labor to be sustained in material and moral ways (Bourdieu, 1986, p. 47-53).

As for cultural capital, it can be divided into three different states: embodied, objectified, and institutionalized. The embodied state denotes the attainment of some ways of doing, both mentally and physically, via making a definitive effort or in some cases without any kind of awareness (Bourdieu, 1986, p. 48). To illustrate, while a person coming from a bourgeois habitus can acquire a high degree of music appreciation in their childhood through exposure to various musical instruments in the normal course of their lives, a middle-class individual is obliged to get training for years in order to be able to reach a legitimate music taste. The objectified form that comprises cultural materials like books or paintings can be acquired primarily through economic capital, while to utilize the product necessitates a cultural background (Bourdieu,1986, p.50). The institutionalized state of cultural capital is the attainment of certain documents, that are attributed an academic value, pursuant to predetermined rules regarding competence for something (Bourdieu, 1986, p. 50).

These kinds of capital can become symbolic capital whenever they are treated in terms of decisive categorizations or divisions in line with the present condition of the capital allocation (Bourdieu, 2015b, p.153). Here, the symbolic power that is acquired through the accumulation of symbolic capital provides its owners the authority to construct a legitimate mode of thought by means of language naturalizing power relations (Appelrouth& Edles, 2008, p. 694). In this way, they are ascribed some “divine qualities” like honor or wisdom which are generally misperceived as innate characteristics away from some acquired features through power struggles following personal benefits. Also, this situation brings about the legitimization of the obedience by “regular people” to the exclusive individual, indicating the existence of “symbolic violence” as we will see in the relation between the coacheees and life coaches (As cited in Swartz, 2015, p .72 ; Bourdieu& Wacquant, 2014, p. 144).

26 2.1.2. Coherence vs. Conflict Between Field and Habitus: the function of ‘’doxa’’ The proper functioning of the existing social order based on a harmony between structures, dispositions, and practice, is the result of the misrecognition of agents about the mundaneness of that order (Bourdieu, 2015b, p. 121). This means that agents acknowledge a lot of formations in the society as they are, without much questioning, while indeed they are embedded in certain interests respecting the acquisition of power. This circumstance is mainly generated by the “doxic” arguments which consist of some taken-for-granted assessments through which we have a familiarity with the world in which we live (Grenfell, 2008, p.120). Here, a doxa functions as a mediator forming the “correspondence between the objective structures and mental structures” by rendering the question of legitimacy about something impossible (Grenfell, 2008, p. 121). In other words, the proper maintenance of the whole system based on the matchup between positions, dispositions, and practices is provided by the intermediacy of the doxa (Bourdieu, 2002, p. 270).

Under normal conditions, habitus continues to operate in direction with the constant configurations of social environment day after day (Grenfell, 2008, p. 134). However, when big and sudden changes occur in any particular field at a macro level or on a more personal basis, habitus is generally not able to keep pace with that circumstance (As cited in Grenfell, 2008, p. 134). Consequently, it cannot do its duty of constructing daily life as a meaningful and natural whole (Grenfell, 2008, p. 134). This situation leads to the downfall of the usual and incalculable way of practice by dissociating the field and habitus called “hysteresis” (Grenfell, 2008, p. 131). In this sense, there can be “a discrepancy between the expectations and real opportunities” making way for the change with regards to dispositions through striving for development of deliberative strategies (As cited in Swartz, 2015, p. 160-61). At this point, the individual is obliged to embark on a permanent study to control his substantial inclinations by means of contemplation and self-observation in order to comprehend the emerging opportunities in the new structuring (Bourdieu& Wacquant, 2014, p. 128-29; Grenfell, 2008, p.134). In this way, the unwittingly

27 adopted doxic way of thinking is transformed into deliberatively regulated one called an “orthodoxic doxa” (Bourdieu, 1977, p.169).

This condition also results in a disenchantment related to the unquestioned existence of the available social system, especially on the side of people whose potential futures promising a more affluent and distinctive life, embedded in the objective conditions of their habitus, are broken to pieces all of a sudden (Bourdieu, 1984, p.144-150). For that reason, in the case of hysteresis, there is a possibility that a counter culture may arise with new doxic suggestions (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 133). This indicates that a heterodoxic environment is emerging by opening an area for diversified mentalities, despite the fact that even these discrete opinions are developed essentially under the thumb of the commonly prevalent orthodoxy, which determines the boundaries of deviations in a tacit way (Grenfell, 2008, p. 123-24). In this context, Bourdieu usually sustains his belief in the persistency of primary dispositions, and their ability to recreate their given circumstances and also in the persistency of the hierarchical social order and its ability to keep some fundamental, misrecognized perceptions alive under ever-changing current conditions by leaving no room for a deliberate change (Swartz, 2015, p. 161-261).

In this regard, coaching practice encourages a new way of constructing life based on a relation between the individual and the universe of energy. It also brings about a sovereign spiritual personality, with the power of managing his life almost totally, away from stereotypic, socially founded judgments. But, I will claim that this supposedly heterodoxic view point is very much drawn from the neo-liberal configuration of self, symbolizing the orthodoxy of our age, with its “competent individual” doxa placing full responsibility upon the agent.

2.1.3. The Production and Maintenance of Social Stratification: the founded “taste” as the founder of distinction In his famous book of Distinction, Bourdieu asserts that social space can be built along the three axes of “the volume of capital”, “the composition of capital”, and “the change or stability in these two properties called as trajectory” (As cited in Bourdieu,

28 1984, p. 114). The first axis indicates the total of all the different kinds of capital someone has, corresponding to a certain “class condition”, which refers to the objective conditions of existence in material terms (As cited in Swartz, 2015, p. 211). This axis is constructed upon a specific sorting of the division of labor in such a way that people with particular occupations constitute three diverse class categories: working class, petite bourgeois, and dominant class (Weininger, 2014, p. 118).

Individuals are also positioned in accordance with the relative proportion of cultural and economic capital in the sum of their accumulated capital, signifying a “class position”, or “status” through which the class categories above are divided into sub- categories (Weininger, 2014, p. 119). The level of status is determined between the class fractions comparatively by means of various practices that generate specific types of “life styles”, which imply symbolic distinctions (Weininger, 2014, p. 116).

Here, as a unifying principle, habitus not only reveals some distinctive practices in line with its specific conditions of existence, but also generates a certain kind of “taste”, referring to “the propensity or capacity to appropriate (materially or symbolically) a given class of classified, classifying objects or practices” (As cited in Bourdieu ,1984, p. 170-73). Indeed, throughout this analysis, the main purpose is to show that tastes are not based on innate abilities, but conversely, they are constructed as a result of the power struggles through “pre-established distinction categories like beautiful/ugly or pleasurable/disgusting, constituting symbolic differentiations between subjects” (As cited in Bourdieu, 2015b, p.22). These differentiations can become meaningful only on the understanding that the practices in question have certain social meanings corresponding to diverse degrees of symbolic power (Bourdieu, 2015b, p. 23). That is to say, tastes are able to be perceived only via their interrelation which imposes some value imposes on them (Swartz, 2015, p. 92).

Within this context, especially around the cultural field, a bitter struggle is made between the three main classes in order to have the competence to determinate the symbolic interpretations of practices on the basis of tastes. Here, in parallel with the

29 structuring of habitus, the diversified tastes have generally two main sources: educational capital and the inherited capital from family (Bourdieu, 2015a, p.27-28). It is also significant to underline that practices of consumption preferences of certain group of people are came up to the some group of producers by means of close type of habitus belongingness. This conditions leads the way of analogic positionings of both of the sides respectively in the consumption and production fields of same cultural artifacts (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 230). In this respect, we will see a similarity between the tastes and inclinations of coaches and coachee.

The third axis rests upon the variation in terms of volume and composition of the total capital in time, termed “trajectory” (Weininger, 2014, p. 119). In this regard, we can talk about two different kinds of trajectories: class and personal trajectory. Every class habitus contains within itself a potential future, which can be promising or not, and in this way, it makes way for the development of open-ended or non-deploying dispositions on the side of individuals (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 123). In other words, every person is born to a social milieu that carries a specific and (most) probable road to walk, generating the required attitudes and mindset for the prospective time, called “trajectory of class” (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 150). However, this does not mean that every individual with a similar habitus experiences pretty much the same chain of events; conversely, everybody has a unique “personal trajectory” that comes out of contextual deviations, particularly in the sense of capital accumulation (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 172).

In light of this information, there is not a sharp and an actual class, but rather, analogical class identities that are constructed by means of possession of diversified capital (As cited in Swartz, 2015, p. 207). For this reason, we can only mention “a probable class” that is not based on a political and social organization or activism (Applerouth& Edles, 2008, p. 702). This conceptualization of class is fundamentally based on a similarity in terms of objective conditions, which create similar practices. But this depiction does not denote a mechanical view of equating some properties to a definitive class, rather, it refers to a unique interrelation between the diverse properties of a class (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 157; Bourdieu, 1984, p. 106). Here, the basic

30 properties are related to the volume and composition of the possessed capital, while the secondary include elements, like age, ethnicity, or sex, whose powers with regard to shaping of the practices are defined also by the situation of primary properties (Bourdieu, 1984, p.107).

All of classes possess some “reproduction strategies” in order to sustain or increase their capital or position, in line with their class trajectories (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 125). In general, the frame of the strategies depends on the amount of diverse types of capital and also on the set of “the instruments of reproduction”, like education or the legal system, through which the transmission of capital from one generation to another becomes possible (As cited in Bourdieu, 1984, p. 125). To move up the class ladder, families frequently apply the ways of transforming one type of capital into another more useful one, called “reconversion strategies” too (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 131).

In this manner, the movements of class changes come into existence in a vertical or horizontal way; that is to say either a child of family advances in the similar place of positions by increasing a similar type of a capital which he already has a certain extent in the first place, or this person switches to almost entirely different position through conversion of one capital to another (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 197-98). But, in general, these strategies are often observed only in the middle classes because those people have inserted dispositions towards progress, while other low class or upper class families are more inclined to accept and maintain their usually inborn location in the society (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 481). I will allege in my third chapter that the new middle class habitus to which my respondents belong is reproduced through education practices and gender mechanisms.

2.1.4. Petite Bourgeoisie: a class with “cultural good will” The middle class, also called the petite bourgeoisie, consists of three main fractions according to Bourdieu (1984): the declining, executant and new petite bourgeoisie. The declining petite bourgeoisie includes mostly craftsman and retailers with relatively little education in comparison to other fractions (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 500).

31 They have a more of “reactionist dispositions” that is reflected in their “conventional tastes”, in contrast with especially stylistic tastes of the new petite bourgeoisie (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 500-504-505).

As I will explain in the following parts, my sample of life coaches and coachees usually come from the new middle classes that share many close characteristics with Bourdieu’s concept of new petite bourgeoisie, while their families mostly come from the rising executant fraction of the middle class. The new petite bourgeoisie is made up of those originally from the lower classes with a high but not so much profitable educational capital in cultural or economic terms or who come from the upper classes but with a relatively low educational level, accompanied by high inherited capital (As cited in Swartz, 2015, p. 224). The people interviewed are almost entirely coming from the former group. This class of people commonly has “presentation” jobs like counselling or advertising. These individuals rely on rendering every aspect of life as a matter of self-made manifestation of ego, which needs to be reconstructed with a certain labor (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 154,-365). Within this scope, life is turned into like an artistic image that is founded and experienced like an infinite performance on a stage called “the stylization of life” (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 57- 253).

This ideal image is also constructed around the “morality of pleasure as a duty”, denoting the struggle to subtract a source of enjoyment from everything in life with a sense of mission (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 367). Although it can be seen as a very free and funny way of life, indeed, to do this, they have to always check their attitudes and exert dominance over their feelings or arguments, almost without a moment of relaxing (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 304).

They need the construction and exhibition of this ideal image and also perpetual control of it, because they are not able to feel sure about their conducts at all, except when the phenomenon in the question is approved in a concrete way as a part of the legitimate culture symbolizing the bourgeois class (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 326). This situation outstandingly reflects their difference from the upper class people, who rely on their free flowing manners and autogenous attitudes coming from their rooted

32 familiarization in appropriation of high-culture goods through the mediation of habitus. Bourdieu conceptualize this feature of people from new petite bourgeoisie as “cultural good will”, based on the segregation from class of bourgeois, indicating their theoretical but not-put-into-practice way of upper class manners (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 319). For this very reason, they are doomed in a sense to be artificial while continuously trying to approve their selves, their nobility, and their faculties (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 490).

On the other hand, mostly the parents of coaches and coachees exhibit characteristics of the executant petite bourgeoisie. It seems they have a restricted way of life without much room for personal enjoyment, while running after their class ideal with high economic and cultural capital by striving to elevate their children up on the class ladder who symbolizes their dreams (Bourdieu, 1984, p.333-53) Bourdieu defines this situation with the attribution of “man of deferred pleasure”.

However, especially while describing the class status of the families of the respondents, I mainly use of the categorizations made by Rutz and Balkan (2016) in their study regarding the reproduction of the new middle class habitus through education. They assert that, particularly in the setting of the transition to a neo-liberal economy in the 1980s, a distinctive type of differentiation took place in the structure of the middle classes. This means that in the process of economic liberalization, the “new middle class is purposely constructed as a new layer of class” by differentiating from “the upper-middle class, composing of the managers, technicians or entrepreneurs with high education” and “the core middle class, consisting of people with salaries” (Rutz & Balkan, 2016, p. 53-65).

Within this context, I can include most of the parents into the upper or core middle class habitus by benefiting from the conceptualization of Gilbert and Kahl, suggesting that the high-level managers or medium title holders belong to the upper-middle class while other white-collar workers belong to the middle class (As cited in Rutz&Balkan, 2016, p.15). This is because we mainly talk about the occupations of merchants, contractors, teachers, real estate agents, bankers, and purchasing

33 managers and prominent tradesmen. But, I should underline the fact that the families generally have high economic capital accompanied by a relatively low educational level.

Within this scope, although there are some exceptions, the parents can be seen as pertaining to middle-class habitus and they will be identified especially in terms of their amount of diverse types of capital and as the constitutive element of respondents’ inherited habitus. Actually, this is the main point of chapter three, in which I will discuss the conflict on the side of life coaches and their clients. This condition stems from the lack of a perfect harmony between “the tastes they incline to and the tastes they aspire to”, as a result of the gap between their inherited moderate habitus and their creative/liberal acquired habitus (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 326).

2.2. The Theory of Symbolic Interactionism: revival of agency As I said before, Bourdieu claims that his theory of structural constructivism is built upon the intention of presenting a holistic view that accounts for the role of both the agent and the structure in shaping the social order. However, by and large, many social scientists, including George Ritzer (2013, p. 395), suggest that he is much more inclined to the structuralist approach with his foundational idea about the working of the society, saying that “Structures generate an unity of dispositions called habitus through which the agents put forth some practices in line with the mentioned structures without conscious calculation” (Bourdieu, 1977, p. 72). It follows from this that in order to investigate the actions of the agents more deeply as active subjects who have some power to design their lives and the general social world, away from only contributing to the reproduction of it in a way, we need a more micro level theory like symbolic interactionism.

Following Herbert Blumer (1986, p.2), this perspective mainly proposes that individuals exhibit actions that are configured jointly with other people in the process of interaction, by relying on their “interpretations” about their own and the other’s behaviors. These interpretations are mainly made via obtained meanings of things

34 (acts) on the basis of the functioning way of the present communication (Blumer, 1986, p.2). Starting from this point of view, following Mead, he asserts that people can make sense of others and themselves and also create for themselves a unique identity only by putting themselves in another’s place and thus by observing themselves from outside of their own ego boundaries (Blumer, 1986, p. 13). This is a way of objectifying oneself. It denotes that by playing certain roles in the daily life interactions, we continuously reproduce and perform ourselves by creating and organizing these roles according to immediate considerations of others’ present and potential reactions (Blumer, 1986, p. 8-13).

Within this context, the self becomes a product of communication with other people and in the process of socialization; we acquire two distinct selves : “I” and “me” (Mead, 1934, p. 140- 174). Here, while “I” is our spontaneous part, and frequently we are unconscious about its perceptions or attitudes in advance of our deeds, which provide us with a unique personality, “me”, also called as the “generalized other”, shows the interiorized social expectations or obligations like an inner judge over almost all of our behaviors and arguments (Mead, 1934, p.175-178).

Indeed, as can be seen in the following parts, coaching practice is fundamentally about the construction of a special narration of a life story, like an external judge, by crossing the boundaries of self in a way that eliminates the “me” part of the self. Related to this issue, Mead asserts that possession of an “ego” is only realized through the inoculation of social norms into the structuring and regulations of the individual manner (Mead, 1934, p. 158). Here, society steps in the configurations of the personalities as the essential coordinator (Elliott, 2014, p. 36). However, according to the coaching mentality, this is a basic source of the social pressures that block the disclosure of the creative and authentic “I” parts. On this point, by objecting the self-idea of Mead in a way, this mentality argues that the “I” and “me” parts of the selves can be separated which is not possible according to my analysis.

Given these items that have been described, it is obvious to allege that symbolic interactionist view provides us with a distinctive view based on perceiving the big

35 structures not as hegemonic and abstract powers having certain mechanisms, determining the activities of individuals, but rather, as social patterns produced by the constellation of different people’s own doings and perceptions (Blumer, 1986, p. 58). By developing this type of perspective, their most fundamental issue is to make a deep investigation about the struggle between the “I” and “me” parts of the individuals which is also the main issue of coaching (Ritzer, 2013, p. 233). Through benefiting from this viewpoint, coaching practice will be analyzed as the mutual production of a new self-definition for coachee based on the interactive performances throughout the coaching sessions between coaches and coachees.

2.2.1. Erving Goffman’s Theoretical Framework : the self as a dramaturgical and ritualistic performance Having traced generally the abovementioned remarks, Goffman is mainly interested in the construction and maintenance of everyday life interactions, which he presents as both a ritualistic order and a game. In this way, he delineates a tangled picture of self, pointing out that while the individual has an obedient self who tries to perform itself in line with the attitudes demanded by the social rules for its position in society, on the other hand, there is also a manipulator self, using some “impression management” strategies to appear respectable in front of others, by organizing a ritually affirmed performance (As cited in Fine & Manning, 2003, p. 46). Here, Goffman regards the self as “a product of an interaction between the performer and the audience”, which is to say that via given performances, the individual is ascribed to a certain self, in contrast to the commonsensical belief that the pure intrinsic quality of self discloses itself through diverse performances (As cited in Ritzer, 2013, p.234 ; Lemert & Branaman, 1997, p.xlvi).

Based on this depiction, he reveals that the self is anything but a static formation. As already suggested, in an attempt to exhibit our different roles properly in line with our social position, one of our many selves came into prominence in any given situation (As cited in Lemert & Branaman ,1997, p.36). In this road, along the all of face-to-face interactions, which is maintained through some widely accepted ways of getting contact with other people, as an indicative of a specific regulation of

36 “interaction order”, people strive for saving their “faces” (As cited in Fine& Manning, 2003, p. 52). Face is the “positive social value a person effectively claims for himself’’ by conforming to the social expectations related to his roles and performances within the scope of social order (Goffman, 1967, p.5). In other words, individuals work hard to display a coherent image of self in harmony with all of their manners regarding the personal consideration of others, themselves and the present environment, called “taking a line” (Goffman, 1967, p.5-6).

The sustainment of the faces as a fundamentals of ritual order in which subjects show respect to each other and affirmed others as dignified persons, is generally provided by a joint endeavor, necessitating activation of several types of ritualistic policies (As cited in Burns, 1992, p.79). Here, Goffman makes a distinction between the “substantive rule”, denoting general rules of conduct not directly related to the purpose of face-saving, and “ceremonial rule”, which demonstrates a socially expected manner of interaction involving “deference” or “demeanor” (Goffman, 1967, p. 53-54).

By showing deference to each other in certain ways, individuals confirm and contribute to the decent functioning of others’ faces, while demeanor refers to the ways of performing oneself as a straight and socially desirable individual (Goffman, 1967, p. 56-77). We can exhibit deference through engaging in “avoidance” or “presentational” rituals (Goffman, 1967, p.62). Avoidance rituals involve ignoring the inconvenient behavior of someone while sometimes the person in charge of the disturbance tries to compensate for his wrong manner by means of “remedial interchanges” of “accounts”, “apologies”, or “requests” (Goffman, 1967, p. 62 ; As cited in Lemert & Branaman, 1997, p.120). In a “request”, a person, usually with a certain symbolic power, asks for permission to invade someone’s (As cited in Lemert & Branaman, 1997, p.123). This occurs in the coaching sessions, when the life coach gets involved in even most private parts of the client’s life at the request of the coachee (As cited in Lemert & Branaman, 1997, p.123).

37 On the other hand, a person also displays some “supportive interchanges” in an effort to show his appreciation of other people. He may do this by expressing empathy with someone in what is called “identificatory sympathy” or by adopting a positive attitude towards an acquaintance’s the recently changed social position in what is called “ratification rituals”(Burns, 1992, p. 79-80). These resemble the basic forms of interaction between coaches and coachees.

Additionally, life coaching sessions can be seen as weekly focused interactions (encounters) in which both parties are together physically or virtually focusing on the same issue (Goffman, 1961, p. 7). During these sessions, the emergence of “euphoria”, denoting feeling as usual, is very crucial which is encouraged by constructing a temporal but unique social world, allowing penetration of individuals into it via its suitable system of regulation or distribution of power between the agents (As cited in Lemert & Branaman, 1997, p.129).

However, by and large, the main purpose of the life coaches is to create a dysphoric setting for coachee because this is the most straightforward way of challenging their present perception of life. To form and carry on this unsettling interaction, both of the subjects exhibit performances in parallel with their interests. Basically, during the performances, agents try to “manage their impressions” by destroying inappropriate situations in terms of their faces through the use of several dramaturgical techniques (Goffman,2014).

Those strategies drawn upon by the subject himself are called “defensive” moves while the ones put to use by the audience in order to maintain the ritual order by contributing to the face-saving of the person in question are called “protective” moves (As cited in Lemert & Branaman,1997, p. lxvi). In this road, people can “keep a distance” between their selves and their roles and so, some inconvenient situations can be ignored as fortuitous events by audiences without ruining the already founded self-construction of them and also a special area can be opened to maintain their symbolic power upon others (As cited in Lemert & Branaman, 1997, p.li). To illustrate, a doctor who speaks wittily while performing an operation represents himself as an

38 amusing and a relaxed person away from the seemingly very serious job he makes (Coser, 1966, p. 174). Another case in point is that sometimes university teachers try to justify their lack of knowledge on a topic by asserting that this topic is not their area of specialization. In these kind of situations, the students generally overlook the mentioned deficiencies regarding background information of the lecturers and maintain their respects for them.

Apart from that, while people “idealize” their performances by tailoring them to socially approved attitudes and standards, at the same time they can “mystify” their performances by organizing their actions in such a way that audiences cannot comprehend exactly what is going on on the stage and they start to admire the actors as well (Goffman, 2014, p. 45-73). As for “dramatic realization”, it can be said that usually subjects are obliged to dramatize their activities to render their performances valuable and well-supported by putting forward some ignored capabilities of them (Goffman, 2014, p. 40).

All of these methods are particularly applied by the life coaches to represent themselves as distinctive people with specialized knowledge, because it is an immediate obligation for the wide recognition of their new occupation. But uncannily, the clients are mostly under the attack of the coaches and have little opportunity to sustain their faces. In a way, they contribute voluntarily to their loss of face during sessions while yearning for the construction of a new face in their daily life. Here, we can talk about a different type of stage from Goffman’s (2014) statements about three types of regions, called front stage, backstage, and outside. The former demonstrates the region in which performances are presented to audiences in an attempt to exhibit a decent image in line with social demands while the latter one functions as more of a preparation region where actors can behave contentedly away from the restrictions of social rules (Goffman, 2014, p. 108-112- 132). The outside means the rest of areas apart from the front and back stages (Goffman, 2014, p. 132). Nonetheless, middle stage in the sessions contains somehow all of these stages.

39 Goffman also perceives everyday life as a game arena. People always participate in “character contests” to acquire power to determine the way their own selves and those of others are constructed (As cited in Lemert& Branaman, 1997, p.lxxii). On this point, he mentions “the expression games” in which subjects fight for control over the information about themselves (Goffman, 1970, p.4). Here, there are always two agents: an observer who tries to comprehend the subject and the meaning of his/her moves in depth and an observed subject who strives to manipulate the observer’s knowledge (As cited in Lemert& Branaman, 1997, p.lxxii). Correlatively, “strategic interaction” is about the ways of determining strategic actions by agents (Goffman, 1970, p.137). Here, the subject tries to appreciate the opponent’s moves, his/her resolution level, his/her information about oneself and others or his/her competence. So, the actions of actors are built upon reciprocally by always considering the other (As cited in Lemert& Branaman, 1997, p. lxxiii).

This circumstance indicates that the coaching process is also based on a strategic interaction through which life coaches strive to reach a tacit or somehow unconscious part of the brain and soul of the coachee by generating a unique type of communicative event. Within this period of meetings, the coachees in particular engage in a sum of “fateful activities”, signifying that the rituals and plan of actions demanded from them are both “problematic” and “consequential” (Goffman, 1967, p. 164). The former adjective demonstrates the ambiguity of the validity of the coaching techniques until the end parts of the process, whereas they are also consequential in such a way that they have certain effects upon the lives of clients after the sessions too (Goffman, 1967, p. 152- 159).

In this sense, a new world is established with specific “situational proprieties”, referring to the immediately co-founded norms of present interaction, by reconstructing and regulating the perceptions of the coachee about a lot of aspects of life, symbolizing a huge “reframing” phenomenon (As cited in Lemert& Branaman, 1997, p.lxix- xlix-liii). To change the meaning of an experience for the coachee, first and foremost some “keyings” are used (As cited in Lemert& Branaman, 1997, p.lxxiv).

40 Within this scope, in the Goffmanian sense, coaching is both an encounter, a character contest and a strategic interaction in which life coaches and clients struggle in company with each other to redesign the face of the latter, by appealing to certain strategies of self-presentation and manipulation especially used by coaches. I will fundamentally examine this peculiar practice of sense-making via interaction as a battlefield of performances embodying trivialization of social acknowledgments and creating a spiritual space for little universe of one’s own.

2.3. Michel Foucault’s Theoretical Framework: construction of a self-technology The mentality of coaching is very much related to the destruction of the aforementioned doxic perceptions and the construction of a new, -partly mystical, and partly logical- “regime of truth.” This term coined by Foucault, designates the figuration of discourse and the mechanisms or techniques that regulate and appreciate acts of individuals as true or false (Rabinow, 1984, p. 73). This is made basically through the usage of some spiritual or technical coaching methods. The common point of all these techniques is to draw a strict separating line between “past” and “current” self of the clients. All the former decisions, moves or feelings of coachee have been rendered strange and inferior along the sessions because they are seen as the remains of social pressures, while there is a big praise for the crafted new, strong self which is believed to be the revelation of the “core” self.

This perspective is very much connected with psychoanalysis, which has been overwhelmingly shaping the attitudes of individuals to their selves for several decades. By presenting this theory, Freud emphasizes the significance of childhood memories upon our personality formation and he says we came to terms with our unconscious thoughts by realizing them in an attempt to attain our authentic ego (Hutton, 1988, p. 123-24). In contrast with this, Foucault believes that the self is only a construction and it is always reframed by new rhetoric and thinking systems. For this reason, the struggle for recollection and resolution of the scattered memories of past times is only a new form of self-policing for him (As cited in Hutton, 1988, p. 139).

41 In an effort to purify the authentic self, many written assignments are also given to the coachees and through which they always ponder on their beliefs or experiences by asking certain stereotypic questions. Broadly speaking, in coaching world, these kind of homeworks represent the textual formation of the genuine life vision and it is like an obligation for coachees to reach their dream lives. This indicates that they learn to interpret their opinions, relations, and favorable or unfavorable memories in a particular way as an only accurate and inevitable option of inference.

The another crucial point is the transmission of an emotional language from the life coaches to coachees throughout the interactive process. Commonly, the former ones teach the latter one how to make sense of their feelings or everyday life experiences. This paves the way for forming a mystical relation with own existence. That is to say during the coaching sessions, a specific technology of self is constructed, referring to a determinate kind of approaching to oneself by engaging in certain operations and modifications in order to construct it as a total of intended state of attributions (Foucault, 1988, p. 18).

The peculiar technology of self having been mobilized by coaches also includes a certain base of spiritual knowledge called positive thinking. That is to say that life coaches usually encourage coachees to have positive energy and ideas, whereas rejecting the negative ones. This situation derives from their belief that the formation of a positive or negative life is related to conscious or unconscious mode of thoughts and feelings. Therefore, supposedly, their main aim is to help clients to form consciously planned and organized positive lives by themselves. However, this seemingly wonderful wish or purpose necessitates a perpetual control of mind and soul via several technics in order to be able to raise positive energy vibrations.

I conceptualize this unique type of self-mechanism as the construction of a “new panopticon.” To make it clear, I must tell the fundamental definition of it made by Foucault. Actually, “panopticon” is an arrangement allowing surveillance without being seen and it creates the perpetual feeling of being observed in individuals, in connected with a mode of disciplinary technique, that started to be used in 19th

42 century (Foucault, 1995, p.200). This panoptic model of power controls and produces time, space, and subject through which it generates itself.

I should underline the fact that even though this schematic design made by Bentham evokes at the first place a structure of punishment and exclusion for criminals or people with certain psychological disorders, Foucault widens the scope of the concept by presenting panopticon as a “political technology which is used for any regulatory action at basic institutions of modern state like schools or hospitals (Foucault, 1995, p. 205-206). One of the most unique and efficient feature of this model stems from its subtle forms of functioning (Foucault, 1995, p. 208).This is made through penetrating power relations into every corner of society, even into brains of people and rendering it both omnipotent and intangible (Foucault, 1995, p. 208).

The integration of power to daily life as a take-for-granted system of operation, results in the embracement of power by every person like a self-censorship mechanism. To be obvious, because this special structure defines and creates the proper ways of doing things by permanently classifying individuals according to the knowledge having produced by the outcomes of unfailing trials on disciplining them, nobody can exist or envision something outside of it (Foucault, 1995, p. 202-203).

Having considered these, the key point of the panopticon is about its production of a specific type of hierarchical relation between “the one sees everything without ever being seen” and “the other one totally seen without ever seeing” (Foucault, 1995, p. 202). Here, who operates the system does not carry so much importance due to the fact that the genuine formation of it melts everything in the same pot (Foucault, 1995, p. 202).

Turning back to the case of coaching, the guardian is the universe. We can think the whole idea of universe of energy and its working system as a defense mechanism at the age of uncertainties. The people have usually felt useless in the face of big companies, huge speculations, and virtual technologies which direct world. For this reason, they need a space for their own hegemony. In particular, coaches must

43 convince the coachees who mostly lost their hold over life while starting to take coaching sessions, in a system in which they are the bosses. By conditioning the quality of life and inner peace to protection of mind from negative ideas with personal effort, power relations are transformed into matters about the level of energy.

Within this framework, many people voluntarily have constructed a new interiorized panopticon along the sessions, by policing their minds and souls. Although it seems that this point of view bestows the person a possibility of building a small but own world whose only director is himself, it ruins the relation with the self and the external world, in such a way that they started to perceive everything as a factor of motivation.

CHAPTER 3 COACHING PRACTICE AS A WAY OF RECONSTRUCTING THE NEW MIDDLE CLASS HABITUS

3.1. Neoliberal Transformation: emergence of a new life structure Keynesian economic policies resting upon the principle of a “powerful, regulatory and protectionist” state started to be waned in the early 1970s and states began to turn away from social welfare and toward neoliberalism (As cited in Bıçakçı, 2008, p. 17). As this ever-evolving period unfolded, this new system reshaped almost every corner of personal and social life, from identity formation and domestic relations to business life and consumption patterns. In terms of the construction of self, the “neoliberal idea of the free-market individual” was imposed on everybody in certain ways (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 2002, p. xxi). This new type of character relies on the paradigm of being self-sustaining and responsive by adapting to ever-changing situations via a high degree of capacity/competency utilization (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 2002, p. xxi).

This kind of “reflexive” or “non-linear” individual is a product of “second- reflexive modernity” based on uncertain fluctuations of a set of networks that substitute for the big structures or institutions of “first/simple” modernity based on well-defined regulations in personal and societal levels (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 2002, pp. vii- ix). Beck and Beck-Gernsheim point out that present-day modernity demands that people perceive every single event in personal terms and “find biographical solutions to systematic contradictions”, as “rule-finders” in every part of their chaotic life (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 2002, pp. xvi-xi). In other words, in the past, individuals lived according to predetermined rules and the big structures of family, class, religion, or state regulations made their choices on behalf of them. However, nowadays, people must pick, create, and project every sort of thing concerning them (Beck & Beck- Gernsheim, 2002, p. 6). In this “tyranny of possibilities,” there are countless alternatives in terms of business life or self-development, around the question of “what kind of a life I am supposed to live” while this situation usually leads usually

45 people without any deliberate guideline to get lost (As cited in Beck & Beck- Gernsheim, 2002, p.7).

Within this context, everybody is obliged to engage in the process of “do-it-yourself- biography,” which is very fragile because any kind of talent or formation has only a temporary value (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 2002, p. 3). This biography is bound to be fragmented and incoherent because nobody knows what they will see and how they will handle it in the next station (Sennett, 2012, p. 14). In such an order, people’s earlier given identities of given identities related to gender, class, or cultural infrastructure transform into acquired identities and it is only by working hard that individuals are able to assume some label defining who they are (Beck & Beck- Gernsheim, 2002, p. xv). “Becoming yourself” - not “being yourself”- is like a duty to be performed with no endpoint and this means that, a state of total sufficiency or satisfaction is impossible (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 2002, p. xvi). Simply put, it is now a basic obligation for everyone to search for and construct a unique self. Instead of the popular saying of “experiencing your life as it is,” but rather, “studying your life like a lesson with serious exams.” However, by and large, today’s people have failed in creating a straight identity for themselves. In other words, they have an unending feeling of underachievement and dissatisfaction because of “the lack of authority attributing a firm meaning about life and about their place in this life except their own selves” (Sennett, 2012, p. 117).

It is widely claimed that people’s expanding area for personal choice and their responsibility for their own decisions provide great freedoms to people in an environment seemingly free of oppressive structures. Arguing against this, Talcott Persons has come up with the expression “institutionalized individualism” (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 2002, p. xxii). He states that today’s people still live within the boundaries and limitations of the big structures of the state and market even if the pressure or constraints coming from family or religion have decreased (Beck & Beck- Gernsheim, 2002, p. xxii).

46 About this issue, Sennett (2012, p. 47) talks about three kind of power means lying behind the image of liberty world; these are “the essential transformation of corporations,” “the flexible specialization in production,” and “the concentration of power without centralization.” Through “programs of reengineering,” fundamental but disconnected changes are made by increasing the burden of tasks and even the dismissing of workers as far as possible for more profit (Sennett, 2012, p. 48). Also, the firms are always trying to adapt to novelties in the market and they request that workers adjust to the temporal quality of the work by continuously reforming their abilities, their schedule etc. (Sennett, 2012, p. 51). While corporations do not establish a strict organization by forming a free movement area for the little working units, they are forced to reach a certain profit margin under all conditions (Sennett, 2012, p. 55).

So, as part of the mentioned chaotic order, everyone has a position of social risk in the field of social status, wellness and especially business (Beck, 2011, p. 27). These risks can be never fully calculated or defined because experiences lose their validity and cannot provide a foresight into coming events. At every turn, one must accept the same risks of accomplishment and collapse all over again (Sennett, 2012, p.83). Through people always feel anxious and stressed in this risk society, they cannot avoid taking risks. They take risks in order to perceive themselves as people trying to do something, not fixed robots, because “stability of any kind means annihilation in such a system” (Sennett, 2012, p. 87). In other words, in this atmosphere of the ceaseless flow of opportunities, dangers and the decline or rise in the value of a lot of competencies, if people cannot keep pace with the rate of change by restoring their self-presentation and their resume according to new circumstances, this indicates that they have no worth anymore for the present world order.

Even though multifarious experts strive to concretize and mark out the map of social and personal risks, there is only a constant situation and perception that “something unexpected can happen at any moment” (Beck, 2011, p.34). In such a chaotic environment, people usually try to hold on to the consumer world in an effort to create solid and reliable zone in their life (Bauman, 2000, p. 81). The customization

47 of products that is revealed by media and advertisements supplies some personal belongings and images. It is made by means of significations relying on an assumed relationship between a good and an indication of a quality (Baudrillard, 2010, p. 104). However, the “industrial production of differences” is related to the production of variations along the same line and divisions between people’s styles or manners relying on real differences are ruined. In this way, “the paradigm of being different” is grounded on a lack of differences (Baudrillard, 2010, p. 104-105). This means that by selling mass products and supplying similar kind of food, books, or clothes, that can be reached a lot of places in the world thanks to globalization, the system consciously generates an artificial sameness. However, at the same time, this condition brings about a hunger and eagerness for anything looking different from well-known products. In a nutshell, it can be asserted that “difference” is able to gain its “divine” meaning and “privileged” existence only in such a far-fetched uniformity. In this context, to be unique, individuals struggle to create an aesthetic life-style by reuniting produced distinctions like an artist (Featherstone, 2013, p. 124).

The transformation of realities into representations renders the personal life a project to be designed. This project includes both rational and emotional work. According to Weber, the process of rationalization consists of some basic elements; the proper use of efficient methods, making selections in a rational way and applying the guidance of general value principles within the scope of a rational life style (As cited in Illouz, 2011, p. 53). This part of the life project is directly linked to a systematic, calculated management of risks, wishes, or purposes via the use of various techniques.

On the other hand, also, “emotional capitalism” sentimentalizes economic and social life by turning emotions into kinds of commodities (Illouz, 2011, p. 17). The communication skills of empathy, listening, self-expression, and motivating become some of the most desired features in business life. Meanwhile people are making “emotional work” in all areas of life as occasions require that means they consciously struggle to trigger artificial feelings like forcing a laugh or suppress their real feelings (Hochschild, 1979, p. 561). Undoubtedly, this situation necessitates the perpetual

48 asking like “What do I feel right now?”, “What should I fell?” and “What do I want to feel?” (Hochschild, 1979, p.565).

In the new world order, there have been very big changes in domestic and gender relations too. On the one hand, women have started to work and earn their own money, and attain higher levels of education. As a result, socially given gender roles have begun to change. On the other hand, flirtations or marriages have become resources to feel happy and to enjoy in one’s subjective life, rather than a lifelong mutual sharing between two people (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 2002, p. 72). However, there is an ongoing conflict between the life styles of “living for others” (the conventional model) and “live for oneself” (the new model) for women (Beck & Beck- Gernsheim, 2002, p.74).

3.2. The New Middle Class The term “the new middle class” was initially used in the nineteenth century to define a group of white-collar workers in increasingly specialized technical jobs related to booming industry in developed countries (Lange &Meier, 2009, p. 7). This class consisted of managers, salaried professionals, salespeople, and office workers. Between 1870 and 1940, the proportion of this class within the American middle class, rose from 15 percent to 56 (Mills, 1969, p. 65). The usage of the term “new” is coined here in contrast to “old or traditional middle class” which is composed of small proprietors, independent craftspeople and workers in related to trades as well as some professional occupational groups (Arslan, 2004, p. 136). However, to be precise, the expansion of the service sector and the fast rise of a cluster of professionals with knowledge-based occupations took place across almost every part of not only advanced but also developing lands with the dawn of post-industrial society. This is marked a new process in which the growing service economy is based on the commoditization of (technical) knowledge, as Bell mentions (As cited in Saffran, 1974, p.496).

A good deal of research has been carried out to identify the main characteristics of the new middle class all over the world, especially since the 1980s. The possession of

49 a high education or enhanced need for consumption are the peculiar features of this new formation, while such deep-seated tendencies of the middle class as individualism, working hard for upward mobility, a rational mindset, and entrepreneurship still matter (As cited in Kravets &Sandikci 2014, p. 126). Kravets and Sandikci (2014, p. 126) describe the consumption style of these professionals with the concept of “formulaic creativity,” which refers to the struggle to blend neoliberal ideals and the standards of native society. This formulaic creativity exhibits a unique as well as a usual way of doing something in almost every parts of life through attainment of certain products and assuming a certain attitude towards these goods.

Fernandes asserts that this class is composed of a working-age population of professionals living in cities with a satisfying income. They have at least a bachelor’s degree, are competent in foreign languages, particularly English and lean toward a corporate career (As cited in Uner& Gungordu, 2015, p. 669). Mills remarks on the “managerial” logic of the new middle class people, which is based on the enhancement of efficiency, reduction of expenditures of any kind, flexible operationalization of every ability or resource in an optimized way and limitless effort to represent, rebuild, and develop oneself in pursuit of one’s expectations (As cited in Kravets&Sandikci, 2014, pp. 131-32).

In order to avoid sharp objectifications, this new class is generally treated as not a homogeneous and static community, but rather, as a mixture of different groups of people proceeding along fragmented and changing trajectories (Wynne, 2002, p. 56). In this way, a wide range of classifications are made to categorize the fractions in the new middle class. Kriesi (1989, p.1081) discusses the distinction between technocrats and professional specialists. Overall, the specialists are much more interested to the occupational knowledge for itself, in contrast with technocrats who see their informations only as the means to reach some organizational aims (Kriesi, 1989, p. 1081). While Goldthorpe conceptualizes the new middle class as fundamentally a service class, David Lockwood talks about three sub-category within this class as professionals with high cultural capital, managers, and petty bourgeois including traders (Wynne, 2002, p.14; As cited in Macıonis&Plummer, 2012, p. 329).

50 Considering the studies about the new middle class in Turkey, Balkan and Öncü identifies two main groups as conservatives and seculars (As cited in Uner& Gungordu ,2016, p. 670). Additionally, Üstüner and Holt (2010, p. 37-42), claims that the main division is the amount and content of cultural capital people possess. Those people with with low cultural capital (LCC) are very different from those with high cultural capital (HCC) with regards to their style of consumption and the way they instrumentalize that consumption.

3.3. The New Middle Class Habitus in Turkey In the context of Turkey, the emergence of a new middle class was firs seen with the neo-liberal reforms of the 1980s. Through a new program of reconstruction called “the 24th January Decisions,” the local economy was opened to international capital (Şimşek, 2014, p. 23). In this process, imports were promoted through protective tax deductions, many sectors were privatized and export-based the sense of manufacturing rose in prominence (Bıçakçı, 2008, p. 17; Emrence, 2008, p. 57). These state measures undermined the traditional middle class while promoting a new middle class. Devaluation of the Turkish lira to encourage exports, for example impoverished the old middle class while tax immunity for real estate and financial assets bolstered the class of new professionals (Rutz& Balkan, 2016, p. 58-60).

Young professional businessmen called “yuppies” got on the stage as the representatives of new ideals like flexibility, entrepreneurship, success and wealthiness (Şimşek, 2014, p. 24). These yuppies usually worked in the sectors of finance, banking, and public relations and they had more modern and progressive ideas about gender relations, politics or social norms than did members of the older, conservative middle class (Şimşek, 2014, p. 26). In time, this white-collar group grew into a big and crucial class in society, one that determines the properties of a smooth life style and the categorizations of normal versus abnormal (Kravets& Sandikci, 2014, p. 126).

For the most part, members of the new middle class have parents belonging who belong to the traditional middle class, nearly all of them with an inferior degree of

51 education (Şimşek, 2014, p. 190). These parents generally come from the declining petite bourgeoisie (small retailers and craftsmen) and from the executant petite bourgeoisie (junior executives, clerical workers, and teachers) (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 509). They set their hopes on their children’s achievements to vicariously attain their unrealized ideals (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 509). However, as distinct from them, their children who constitute the majority of the new petite bourgeoisie have certain types of representation jobs in a variety of fields. Some work in the medical and social services sector as nutritionists or family counselors, while others have jobs in marketing or public relations (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 359). There are also some professionals involved in the cultural sphere like producers, journalists, or presenters in the media sector (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 359).

Without ignoring the grift composition of the new middle class, in general terms, we can say “the members of this class dignify the attributes of being entertaining, elegant, stylish, and artistic” (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 517). Nonetheless, their social or cultural origins make crucial differences with regards to the configuration of these features (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 517). This circumstance is able to be traced in the abovementioned research of Üstüner and Holt (2010) on the basis of the upper- middle classes in Turkey. People with LCC, consume the luxury goods prized by the upper classes, to indicate their distinctive status in the local environment, whereas those with HCC try to appropriate the consumption pattern imposed by Western life- style with their behaviors, mode of expressions, and virtues, (Üstüner& Holt, 2010, pp. 42-47). After all, high cultural capital is not obtained as part of a habitus through which some inclinations and taste judgments are unconsciously attained. On the contrary, it requires education and certain systematic practices based on the Western kind of values (Üstüner& Holt, 2010, p. 52-53). In other words, people must change their original habitus to be part of the Western world.

In this study, the (re)production of the new middle class through the mediation of its habitus is investigated particularly by focusing on new generations’ acquisition of generative dispositions and practices related to the gender roles and educational accumulation. Here, I discuss the issue of gender on the basis of the experiences of

52 women because women constitute the great majority of those who work as and those who hire life coaches.2

Since the beginning of the neo-liberal period, women have been encouraged to obtain seemingly some new characteristics as part of the so-called their female identities. The media, especially the “women magazines” whose target group is women of the new middle class, tell women that to be admirable, they must “beautiful, well-groomed and healthy” (Ahıska& Yenal, 2006, p. 10). “To get fit” has grown into a much-debated technical issue and women internalized this attribute as a criterion for their self-assessments, which indeed rest upon the tastes of an imagined group of men (Ahıska& Yenal, 2006, p. 13). As a sign of self-respect and membership in the upper class, “taking care of the body” has become a fundamental source of anxiety for women (Ahıska& Yenal, 2006, p. 14). Within this context, the bodies of women have been externalized as objects of desire that are evaluated according to standards, that conflict with the aims of authenticity.

At this point, it is crucial to underline that even though womanhood is built upon the valuations of men, the real way of distinction for women of the new middle class is formed in comparison with other women, especially those in the working class or lower middle class (Bora, 2012, p. 23). To get a high position, they ascribe certain qualities to themselves and others within the frame of certain dichotomies. Here, the most prominent dichotomy is the recursive opposition between conventional and modern womanhood, which dates back to the era of Tanzimat reforms (Filiz, 2011, p. 41; Bora, 2012, p. 66). This kind of modern womanhood generally involves elements like having a high education and a secular, Westernized, and autonomous worldview, believing in gender equality in theoretical terms, possessing a fit body and an entertaining social life, being included business life and behaving in line with the

2 According to the research made in 2010 by ICF Turkey, females constitute 75 % of coach practitioners in Turkey. (http://www.icfturkey.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/icf-turkiye-genel-aralik-2010.pdf) The 2O16 ICF Global Coaching study results supported the fact that the number of female coaches outnumbers the male coaches with a proportion of 67 %. (http://www.coachfederation.org/files/FileDownloads/2016ICFGlobalCoachingStudy_ExecutiveSum mary.pdf)

53 proprieties, especially in public spaces (Ayata, 2003, p.51). This prototypical image is formed in opposition to the illiterate, ill-bred, dependent, or neglected women of the working class who come from rural provinces or the newly rising Islamist community (Ayata, 2003, p.51).

This situation demonstrates a struggle to redraw the boundaries of the class to which one belongs, in a period of rising ambiguities in terms of class belonging due to the expanding means of consumption (Filiz, 2011, p. 37). To put it another way, while in the past, consumption pattern signified clearly one’s class status, nowadays because almost everyone can get every kind of good, whether real or fake, this is not a sign of prestige anymore. In this sense, the well-defined construction of a superior life style and the expression of modernness is provided through distinctive displays of consumption which reflect an unique cultural capital, in house designs (opening personal spaces in the home environment), areas of residence (usually satellite towns), physical styles (remarkable effort for complying with the beauty standards) or social activities (like dance) (Ayata, 2003, p.50-52).

Although allegedly these modern women object to the conventional gender discrimination and also support freedom of women in every part of life, gender roles still shape the relations and perceptions of women in the direction with the rooted social norms about this issue. Getting married and becoming a mother, for example, still seem like predetermined life phases for women of the new middle class, as they were for old generations of women in all classes (Filiz, 2011, p. 87). To become a perfect woman who is at the same time “the best mum, the best wife, the best worker, and the best bride,” it is a necessity for women to select jobs that offers more flexibility and often pay less (Özdemir, 2009, p. 145). Women are also responsible for caring for their children both materially (preparing meals or helping with homework) and spiritually (dealing with them and their problems personally). At the same time, they are also expected to take care of their bodies, and behave properly so as to be desired by their husbands (Özdemir, 2009, p. 145).

54 The media or social pressure from the family, directs women into searching for the ways of seduction of men and convincing them to marriage (Özdemir, 2009, p.132). The methods of being a great girlfriend have been represented as a recipe or magical package for a satisfied private life like a commodity of market economy (Özdemir, 2009, p.132). As opposed to the old popular belief that the well-behaved women should guard her “honor”, and wait for a man to propose, the new women is required to move like a “man-hunter” who know all the strategies to catch her victim. If she does not have a boyfriend (as a candidate for a future husband) or a husband, this is definitely her fault. And this usually leads to the emergence of a weak self-esteem or feelings of worthlessness. This is a tricky business. On the one hand, women of the new middle class should be socially and economically independent. At the same time, they are obliged to adjust their behaviors in line with the conventional requirements of a paternalistic society. This situation constitutes the fundamental point of conflict in the life and personal egos of women of the new middle class.

Education is the second essential mechanism through which “the new middle classes reproduce themselves by using economic, cultural or social capitals to have a comfortable and secure future” (Rutz& Balkan, 2016, p. 19). Here, the basic paradigm is that education prompts the new generations to learn foreign languages and cultures in order to become “intellectual” adults with specialized professions (Rutz& Balkan, 2016, p.27). In this way, families in the new middle class compete to enroll their children in the most prestigious schools and to help them get the highest scores on state examinations (Rutz& Balkan, 2016, p.25). While before 80s onwards, the middle class people regarded Anatolian high schools as good schools, rise in population and a decline in the quality of education lessened the appeal of public schools (Rutz& Balkan, 2016, p. 101).

Together with the neo-liberal transformation, the number of Turkish private schools suddenly increased and started to attract the new, rich middle class, while excluding the old, poorer middle class (Rutz& Balkan, 2016, p. 101). In the meantime, private foreign schools sustained their high status through their capability of inoculating students with specific Western high cultures (Rutz& Balkan, 2016, p. 101). Within this

55 context, relatively poorer members of today’s new middle class coming from more old-middle class origin generally entered the public schools, whether regular high schools, vocational high schools, or Anatolian schools with regards to their achievements in the exams. The more affluent, in contrast, are better able to adapt the new standards of the free economy usually go to private schools.

Although the examinations that serve as gateways to these schools depend on the ability to think quickly and to memorize information, the main request of the new middle class has been “qualified education” based on the ideals of neoliberal self: creative thinking, generative self-expression, and theoretical and practical mastery of Western culture (Rutz &Balkan, 2016, p. 202). This request is relevant particularly to parents with relatively high cultural capital and high economic capital, whereas parents with more lower cultural capital and economic capital are generally more relaxed about the issue of education and they see education mostly in pragmatic terms, especially when their children are girls (Güneş-Ayata & Acar, 2003, p. 117). However, even in these more insensitive families, the girls usually work hard to reach a high status through obtaining a good education level, because their life depends upon their achievements in public life (As cited in Güneş-Ayata & Acar, 2003, p. 118).

The competition to have a comfortable life continues in the run up to university as well. Students preparing for university use various tactics to distinguish themselves, including going to private teaching institutions, taking private lessons, selecting more favored departments benefiting from social networks to get ahead, and doing internships or enrolling in specialized courses. Here, the private high schools and prestigious universities bring into forefront the ideal of perfect intellectuals as rational, positivistic, and secular individuals. In these school environments, too, sports and arts contests encourage competitive skills and the feeling of being sucessful (As cited in Güneş-Ayata & Acar,2005, p. 112). In this way, students internalize the value of uniqueness and they learn to take on their own responsibility. At the same time, while striving to gain success in these kind of activities, they develop a strict control mechanism and a perfectionist kind of mindset based on the perpetual evaluation of their arguments and feelings.

56 Even in the public schools, where there are usually inadequacies in terms of resources, educational style, or social activities, students can invent new ways of distinguishing themselves with some material or spiritual help from their families in a period where “ to make money quickly and easily by watching for opportunities’’ is the most favorite action and the personal marketing is the main key in this road (As cited in Güneş-Ayata & Acar, 2003, p. 119; Ahıska&Yenal, 2006, p. 9). Thus, students are also inclined to develop characteristics of subjectivity and entrepreneurship to succeed.

In this context, the habitus of the new middle class provides both coachees and life coaches with certain dispositions. Higher education, particularly, paves the way for a high cultural capital and inoculates people with ideal gender images. This reflects on the one hand what Bourdieu calls the “inherited habitus” of one’s familial background and on the other hand “the acquired habitus” of one’s education which is accompanied by a different social environment and unusual ideals (Bourdieu,1984, p.13). However, as will be seen in the following sections, the inherited inclinations eventually become an obstacle to the desires springing from one’s “acquired habitus.” Because of the ambition embedded in the middle-class habitus, people enter into the coaching world in order to overcome these obstacles by realizing their acquired dispositions and suppressing their inherited ones.

3.4. Hire a Life Coach : an approach to changing inherited habitus Bourdieu (2015a, p. 27) argues cultural capital is rooted in both one’s degree of education and one’s social origin; these accord, respectively, to the acquired and inherited habitus discussed above. All of the coaches who took part in my study had at least a bachelor’s degree (one with a master’s degree and another was a PHD student) and they can speak English as their main foreign language. Some of them also know German to a certain extent as a second foreign language. This means that they have high levels of education, especially taking into consideration the setting of Turkey.

57 However, in terms of their social origins, almost all of the coachees come from families with high economic but low cultural capital3. The one exception was Ayça’s parents, who are well-educated civil servants. Aside from them, the fathers of the most coachees are only primary school graduates, and only two graduated from high school. The mothers of all of the coachees are housewives except the mother of Pelin works as a cleaner and the mother of Ayça who is a financier. Coachee families are generally immigrants from rural areas who have settled in the more developed Western regions, especially Istanbul. Even though their parents originally belonged to the lower-middle class, through certain means, particularly hard-work and a spirit of entrepreneurship, they achieved a prosperous life.

Nevertheless, this condition generates a big gap between the parents and their children, especially in cultural terms. This gap becomes a significant source of conflict in the lives of coachees, who usually belongs to the new middle class. During our interviews, some of them mentioned this issue sometimes by underestimating the position and ideas of the parents which serves the purpose of demonstrating their own superiority. They paid a big attention to my education. I have always attended to courses related to tennis or sailing. So, they brought up me as a social person. I think that they tried to make their wishes come true, which they could not do while they were growing up. From this aspect, it is very nice but, there are disconnections between us. We could come to terms better if they studied at a university. Even for example, when I want to go out, my mother changes her attitude towards me. (Ecem, 24, new graduate)

My father wants to direct everything; his wife, his child. He even decided my school where I went for the university entrance exam. He didn’t let my mum have a voice. Even though he has no education, even though he was graduated from primary school, he gave a direction to my education life with his hearsay informations. (Serkan,36, mechanical engineer)

Even so, they seem mostly remote from their parents’ outdated and insensible mentality, their “inherited” total of dispositions has continued to exist through their judgments or manners in mostly hidden ways (As cited in Grenfell, 2008, p. 174). In

3 This identification of ‘’low cultural capital’’ or ‘’high cultural capital’’ is made by considering mainly the education level.

58 other words, as a “second nature”, habitus is associated with class position, gender, nationality, or even ethnicity and so it can be said that the coachees’ dispositions are very much arising from the conditions and features of their families (Bourdieu, 1990, p. 56; Reed-Danahay, 2005, p. 2). The central issue of coachees shows up at this very point. Their educational experiences are very different from those of their parents and they have had the opportunity to acquire some sort of higher inclinations or judgment systems. But, some of their stable dispositions prevent them from progressing in certain ways. This is because of the fact that “at every moment of an educational or intellectual biography, the habitus tends to reproduce the system of objective conditions of which it is the product” (As cited in Reed-Danahay, 2005, p. 22). I want to set up my own business. But, I have some fears about it too like losing money or fear of being ignored (yok sayılma korkusu). I want to design hand-made purses. (İrem, 26, working in a business intelligence company, Coachee)

I did not imagine what job I would have in the future when I was at high school. I had not such a concern. My only dream was to go somewhere away from my home. I had grown up with my family. My dream was to get away from that atmosphere and to study at a university, which is located in a different city. But, I went to university in the same city where my family lives and so, I continued to live with them. I could not go out. That’s what happened. (Neriman, 38, Housewife, Coachee)

Here, the mentioned case is going parallel with Bourdieu’s concept of “hysteresis” based on the unconformity between a certain field and habitus (Grenfell, 2008, p. 131). As stated in the theoretical chapter, agents cannot take advantage of or even really comprehend the new opportunities deriving from the new structure of the fields in such periods of crisis due to their rooted dispositions, which correspond to the old structure of fields. This situation usually generates a big confusion and frustration for many people because they cannot adapt to the changes in social relations or business world (As cited in Grenfell, 2008, p. 134). In the case of coachees, it is going through a “depression period” that leads them to turn to the life coaches for a solution.

59 Nonetheless, as distinct from the abovementioned type of construction of hysteresis seen in Bourdieu’s theory, there is no huge social transformation or irrevocable systematic transformations at macro level effecting extremely everyone in the society in an instant. So, we can talk about an individual kind of hysteresis. This means that coachees become bothered by their responsibilities, their mode of thought rooted in familial (inherited) habitus and their way of life. They became unhappy started to question the meaning of their lives, mostly following a sharp and unexpected event or overlap of these kind of several events. So, they can no longer ignore that their fears, their mindsets, or their attitudes related to various issues are not making them happy or satisfied.

This circumstance represents the emergence of what Giddens (2014, p.147-48) calls a “critical moment,” which denotes “the turning points that requires individuals to take big decisions with huge impact on their future life.” The decision regarding marriage, for example, or starting a new job, or becoming a parent endangers the usual operation of habitus and leads to a good deal of self-questionings that paves the way for a redesign of the personal manners in most instances (Giddens, 2014, p. 148-49- 71). In a post-modern world in which these types of “transition phases” are not predetermined by social order and also the individuals have not any guide to instruct them in a definite way, they must personally confront these cases with high tensions (As cited in Giddens, 2014, p. 149-90). When my son’s doctor decided to go abroad, I felt desperate. He was the best expert in his field all across Turkey. He was among the few people who has knowledge about this issue. This was the subject on which I received a big support. (Neriman, 38, Housewife, Coachee)

I was not pleased with myself. I said to myself this is not my potential. While I was not forgetful at all, I have became a forgetful person. I was a girl whom every man desires to be with when I entered in a room or I was the one everybody runs after, but this is over. Also, I had a relationship for seven months and this person tried to suppress me. This shook my confidence. I had this relationship a year after my father died. I had already the fear of death and worthlessness and then my lover suppressed me, so, I have lost my self- confidence completely. I felt like I could not perform my femininity. (İrem, 26, working in a business intelligence company, Coachee)

60 To summarize, people embrace various opinions, wishes or idealizations as the result of a potential factors: the education process, the relatively high social environment and also the connections with and exposure to Western ideals. But these are not enough to transform their dispositions thoroughly or to accept a new life-style and vision of world. However, after the aforecited “critical moments”, coachees felt compelled to struggle for converting their inclinations. So, this individualized version of hysteresis takes place as a consequence of conflict between two kinds of habitus in different fields of coachees’ lives, namely between the inherited and the acquired habitus that rely on different amount and type of cultural and symbolic capital. Here, hiring a life coach functions as a method for transcending one’s own habitus by acquiring new perspectives and patterns of behavior.

3.4.1. The First Case: Ayça, 34, Higher Education Based on coachees’ comments in my interviews with them, the starting point of their depression seems to have a sense that they were incapable of living up to the expectations, imposed on them by their inherited dispositions, which they did not initially question. This is generally followed by feelings of worthlessness and insecurity. Ayça offers a case in point.

Ayça’s parents were civil servants. She was a lecturer at a famous university while also pursuing her doctorate at another big university. At some point, she began to lose her enthusiasm about the academic world and came to feel indifferently about academic articles. She says that she began to read some self-help articles on social media every morning, and that she found these more interesting than her own field. The seemingly predetermined and secure course of her life as an aspiring scholar en route to becoming a prestigious academic who would produce important studies had suddenly disappeared from view. Perhaps for the first time in her life, she asked herself whether she really wanted to work in a university setting and to bury herself in books. She saw that there was another life available to her, the one described in the world of self-improvement.

61 However, her real breaking point came as the result of a sudden and absurd end to a love affair. This breakup probably brought home to her the disappointment of being single in her thirties in Turkey; in line with her conventional middle-class values Her very sensitive boyfriend abandoned her without a word. In this way, she asked herself why she cared so much about him and had devoted so much time to him.

Asking such questions is a striking characteristic of the petite bourgeoisie. Bourdieu asserts that “equidistant from the two extreme poles of the field of the social classes, at a neutral point where the forces of attraction and repulsion are evenly balanced, the petit bourgeois are constantly faced with ethical, aesthetic or political dilemmas forcing them to bring the most ordinary operations of existence to the level of consciousness and strategic choice.” (Bourdieu, 1984, p.345). So, as a member of a new middle class, Ayça had unanswered questions like “What am I supposed to do for finding myself an appropriate job?”, “Why am I keeping company with uneven guys?”, “Why my relationships come to a sticky end?”, “How can I have a better relationship?” or more basically, “Who am I and What do I really want to do with my life?“

Within this context, she started to hire a coach whom she described as being “an idol” for her. In process of interacting with the coach, she says that she began to see clearly that her ingrained fears precluded her from breaking a new ground. Her conservative sense of security and her deliberation about every little decision in her life over like an exam question, led to a passive and static kind of life. This kind of life was not something she wanted especially given her attraction to the myth of personal growth. To illustrate, when she was given an opportunity was given to her to live in a cheap, spacious public housing, she resisted for some time even though the rent of the house she was then living in very much higher and the move would provide her with a substantial deal of extra money to spend on other things. Nonetheless, the coach suggested a session to evaluate about the pros and cons of both options, and then, encouraged her to move. Only after that did she decide to move which she says had a very good influence on her life.

62 In addition to this, in terms of her romantic life, she realized that her obsession with being in a relationship resulted in her continually going to an old relationship with a conservative boyfriend who failed to comply with her life-style. After the investigation of the compatibility between her and her ex-boyfriend in one or two sessions, she decided to finish her relation with him completely. In this way, her sessions with her life coach helped her examine and overcome the dispositions stemming from the older logic of her inherited habitus.

3.4.2. The Second Case: Pelin, 31, Visual Communication As for Pelin, what led her to life coaching was the collision between responsibility to work hard and earn money to help her working-class family (which she could do because of her high degree of education) and her feeling of being a faithful daughter to that family on the one hand and her dreams of being independent, creative and social Western woman with a fun and unqiue life style on the other hand. Because of this conflict, all of a sudden, she left her corporate job, which she says was monotonous and restrictive. She also broke up with her foreign boyfriend who had a high degree of cultural capital on account of a fight related they had due to a cultural clash. That is to say that she withstood her inclinations coming from working class habitus as being a proper or self-sacrificing daughter. Also, by breaking up with her foreign boyfriend, she ruined probably the only space where she could feel as part of upper classes which is again contrary to her rooted dispositions to climb in class ladder. As a result, her usual way of life broke down and she became intensely depressed.

In the coaching process, by means of “powerful questions,” she realized that she had big fears and anxieties pertaining to failure and confidence. At this juncture, going back to Bourdieu, it is significant to emphasize that “the dispositions were acquired in concert with emotions. Indeed, the child incorporates the social in the form of affects“(as cited in Reed- Danahay, 2005, p. 110). Moreover, he points out that “agents subjectively experience feelings that are for them self-evident and part of the world -as it ought to be-“(as cited in Reed- Danahay, 2005, p.110). So, she had these feelings because her habitus imposed upon her a necessity for an unending

63 observation of herself in every event and a constant struggle to renew and reconstruct herself and her life by regulating her abilities, inclinations, and attitudes (Featherstone, 2013, p. 162). Because for the new middle class, there is no ending point of development, learning or training which arises from their “worried assertiveness” (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 521). In other words, they are assertive but they are never sure about their actions and because of that, they always feel anxious. Pelin explains this exact situation as follows: My biggest problem was that I fell unsuccessful. I had perfectionism. I have always said that because my secondary school was not good enough, so I could become the top student in my class. I discredited my high school even though this is not a bad school. When this case has persisted in university also, I said ok, something is wrong. In my first session with coach, she asked me what my problem is and what I want to change about my life. I said that I feel very unsuccessful. Then, she burst into laughter.

In the first session with my coach, I specified the issues which I want to solve. The first thing I said was that I feel unsuccessful. I had communication problems with people. I had also problems with abundance, money and my family. I had a despotic and negative perspective on man. I lacked feeling of trust. My confidence problem was against life, my family, and myself. My relationship with my family was bad and I was angry with them because I accused them of some events in my childhood. But, after a while, and especially after the sessions, I have realized that everything is my choice.

Pelin also claims that her life coach explored her code called “the life is difficult” refering to the deep-rooted stereotypes, which stick in one’s mind and direct his/her behaviors hiddenly. Supposedly, because of that condition, everything in her life went wrong until she met with her coach. But now, she is trying to acquire a totally new perspective about life: My coach said to me that the life is easy. First, even I got angry. But then, I tried to repeat it often and I attached the papers on which the sentence of “life is easy” was written to several places. It was hard to accept it for me. But, after a while, I started to realize that sometimes everything is working like a clockwork. For example, when I want to cross over, directly the green light turns on. I have a good relationship with universe now.

Having looked at her childhood and puberty, Pelin says that her working-class parents did not take an interest in her educational life or her material or immaterial needs because of their intense and tiring jobs. Additionally, she was obliged to make every

64 decision by herself. She had to make her own money and was responsible for everything related to her life. Under these circumstances, her dispositions were shaped around a logic of struggle and self-reliance as the only options. Also, thanks to her level of education and her attempts to have a more modernized life, with the expression of her sister, she is like the character of Frodo in the “Lord of the Rings”. That is to say, by experiencing such a fantastic and tough journey, while her mother was a woman working in the fields for a long time, she became the top student in the schools and visited all of Europe as well.

However, all these achievements were not able to constitute a feeling of confidence and success for her until she went to a life coach. Supposedly, her inherited habitus relies on the embracement of incompetency as the main value certifying the inferior status (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 481). At the same time, her life conditions have built upon a slippery surface. Unlike most of the other coachees, who have at least some economic capital from their families, Pelin inherited no economic or cultural capital at all. In this sense, there was no easy way on her side to feel proud and she needed a certain authority to approve and witness her progress and to put her acquired dispositions into practice.

In this road, she does some spiritual work like writing down the things she is grateful for on a daily basis or repeating sentences like “I trust myself,” “I love myself as just the way I am,” and “I trust the divine flow of the universe” every morning. This is the main spiritual paradigm in the coaching world, and it is designed to change people’s inherited habitus through “communication with the universe.”

According to this paradigm, to destroy the fears or anxieties coming from the habitus, a series of systematic steps should be taken. Primarily, we should put ourselves in the “vision world” of the person who has already accomplished what we want and act that person would. So, this imagination should be inscribed in our mind and life deeply (This is called also “the choice of becoming”: olmak seçimi) (Oğut, 2011, p. 94). Afterwards, we should move on by paying attention to the clues we encounter in the process related to our wishes, namely, we don’t ought to go blind to the

65 winkings of the universe (Oğut, 2011, p. 130) This means that at this stage, the universe has already taken action to meet our wishes and we should preserve our motivation even though we encounter some negative events related to our desire. For example, let us say that if you have a father who is always talking about how difficult it is to earn money and saying that, you should work really hard to live a life of luxury. In such a case, you may well person develop a wrong belief about this issue and you may experience problems relating to earning money throughout your life. These problems arise because your energy expands in that way and so dispositions coming from the inherited habitus, which impose on people these kind of arguments, create same experiences again and again for these people.

In order to break this circle, it is an obligation to break the taboos and code yourself with a new type of habitus. By saying some positive sentences like “I can earn money very easily” or “earning money is an easy task”, you can make affirmations and your mind can start bending gradually. If you are able to stop listening to your dispositions, over time, you will earn money more easily. In this manner, Pelin tries to change her latent feelings and arguments about herself and her life by transforming her energy in spiritual terms.

In life coaching, action is also an important part of change. Her coach helped her to recognize her “real” wishes and ideals through self-inspection and to designate an action plan in order her to have a do-it-yourself life-style. In this respect, her coach directed her to live by herself and to strive for establishing a profit-making free-lance job. On the subject of money, the coach again tried to give her a new point of view by showing that richness is an energy, not a material thing. As for romantic life, the coach compelled her to accept a single life to move her away from the mindset of dependency or the need to have a boyfriend.

So, with her peculiar arguments, questions, and action schedules, the coach rendered the coachee a successful, strong, and independent person who knows what she wants and is also capable of reaching her aims. In this process, the coachee’s feelings are reconstructed as desired because through the newly created vision, she perceives

66 herself as the center of her own world in which everything is possible with her self- confidence, energy, and unfailing self-assessments.

To summarize, coaches work to the decisions, perceptions, and attitudes of coachees on a lot of issues by means of certain coaching techniques that allegedly serve the purpose of awareness raising. Although it is claimed that the process is about the revelation of inner potentials, as observed in the mentioned cases, coaching practice is predicated on the elimination of some dispositions of coachees in an attempt to push their inherited world of thought into the background. This is because, their emotions and line of actions, which spring from their social origins, prevent them from reaching their dream lives based on being assertive, independent, and materially and spiritually satisfied women.

In this sense, the coaching process seems to offer the hope of change to coachees. Bluntly put, the aim is to finish the painful conflict between “tastes they incline to and appreciations they aspire to” (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 326). This can be identified as the struggle between “naivety, humbleness, seriousness, ascetic sort of discipline, rigour, moderation, the propensity to accumulation, permanent invocation of “ought to be” bringing about a fussy need for a strategic planning and renunciations” and “casualness, grace, facility, freedom, naturalness, self-assuredness, sense of trust” in the habitus of new petite bourgeoisie (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 331-39-45-86; Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 478-90).

3.5. Correspondence Between Coaches and Coachees in Terms of Habitual Conflict: is the war really over? Bourdieu talks about a homology between the fields of production and consumption as a result of the equation between the positioning of producers and consumers of the same goods, respectively in the production and consumption field (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 341). In other words, these producers and consumers get “dominant or dominated” positions in their respective fields in line with the amount and types of their capital (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 341). This situation leads to the construction of a sensitive demand-supply diagram (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 341). However, there is no

67 relationship between the producers and consumers, which is built upon mutual interests or deliberate calculation of profit and loss. (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 338). Rather, through the exclusive mechanisms of habitus, producers acquire dispositions to produce certain kind of goods, which correspond to the demands of a number of consumers. (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 341). In short, the social production of equivalent goods and tastes indicates that the producers and consumers of same kind of goods have similar inclinations as part of similar class habitus (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 341).

This almost perfect match-up can be also seen between life coaches and coachees. Especially, there is a big similarity between the decision points to hire a life coach and to become a professional life coach. Coaches experience the habitual clash between inherited and acquired dispositions, too. Also, they have tried to destroy some dispositions coming from familial background which were further reinforced by the stereotypic arguments that were imposed by the politics of the economic system. Their interest in the occupation of coaching usually started after an upsetting experience related to their lifestyle that was the result of the conflict between their inherited and acquired inclinations. They saw coaching as a way to escape to a Westernized self, spirituality, and life based on the ideals of freedom, individuality, happiness, creativity, and self-care.

This circumstance closely parallels the desires and programs of Turkish executives about going back to natural life and relaxing away from the chaos of the business world. These ideas have become common since the beginning of the first decade of the 21st century, as they have with some American or European professionals (Bali, 2009, p. 305). The neo-liberal capitalist principles of working hard, and being successful and enterprising, which were popular all over the world in the 1980s and 1990s, have made people’s lives unbearable. It is not surprising that most life coaches are former white-collar professionals (financiers or senior managers). Within this context, the real issue of coaches is how to change their ingrained dispositions to comply with the emerging world of new Western dreams. However, we can see again and again that the social or class norms shaping the practices take as much space as economic-systematic problems.

68 3.5.1. The Third Case: Emir, 44, Life Coach, An Old Bank Director In the case of a coach called Emir, he had troubles concerning very different areas of life before he became a life coach. A few years ago, he had a good position in a bank and a happy marriage. But, he suddenly became unhappy about his life-style. He was also disturbed that he was not devoting enough time to his children and his social life due to his job. Additionally, the general logic of the system forced him to constantly rush and sapped his energy. In this way, he began to hire a career coach in order to find new ways to advance in his career. As a result, he ultimately decided to be a life coach himself in order to have a more fulfilling life. According to him, this kind of life allows him to have more humanistic and close relations with his coachees and family, while offering him more space and time for self-development. The advantage of the coaching is that this is among the few occupations, which give the opportunity to touch the lives of the people. In coaching, you have person-to-person meetings. The sense of satisfaction that comes from the touching to lives of people does not exist generally in the corporate business life. I worked for example as a banker for a long time. I have recently watched a movie. It is also reflected in this movie that in the banking business, especially in the general management department, you deal with the numbers. Everything is reduced to numbers. This situation prevents the feelings of self-satisfaction.

Nonetheless, he had a hard time overcoming his fears before and after this transformation process. This is because he possessed dispositions that left him with feelings of material insecurity, anxiety about losing prestige, and not being successful enough in his new job and in changing family relations. He was the child of two bankers, had graduated from famous schools, and had even studied abroad for two years. This history shaped his basic dispositions, and imposed upon him some social stereotypes about his daily life and job. It also together with the linear life he had until not long ago, blocked his road to change. After several years of experience in coaching, he still tries to depict coaching as a well-defined profession that relies on systematic principles. This account allows him to present himself as an informed and confident life coach even though the necessity he feels to exhibit and prove the legitimacy of his position indicates that he still needs to be approved (Featherstone, 2013, p. 91).

69 When a coachee comes to us, the first thing to do is an assessment. So, in first session, the personal satisfaction in different areas of life is measured like health, work, career, relationships, social life, money, time management etc. Afterwards, the person is asked about evaluating this picture. Then, in this way, he/she determines the topics, which will be studied. This is a table including scores ranging from 1 to 10. In the second phase, it is an obligation to specify the aims which the person wants to reach in the short term and in the long term. Then, we look at the ways, which will lead us to these aims. Which change does the person need? Is the trouble related to the perspective or the action part. So, actions steps are determined in every session and the process goes like this.

I share an essay every day on social media. In reality, there is no such a thing in the world. So, I am the first person on earth who have been publishing a writing every day. I have almost fifth thousands followers and I have three books.

Figure 3.1. The visual image of “wheel of life 4

These quotes seem not so far away from the numerical and insensitive world of business. Following Bourdieu, the strategic and attentive mind of new petite bourgeoisie is efficient in shaping the attitudes of its members (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 498). Although he often mentions how he takes of pleasure from everything in his life, his answers shows a very calculated and formulated way of thinking which probably leaves no much space for enjoyment or relief. This situation reflects the

4Reprinted from Wheel of life: A Self-assessment tool by B. Brendan, 2013, retrieved April 10, 2017 from http://www.startofhappiness.com/wheel-of-life-a-self-assessment-tool/

70 disposition of the new petite bourgeoisie “to have fun” as a mission to be completed, but for the very reason, it also reflects the impossibility for them of indulging in doing something (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 527). So, even though the coach somehow has to symbolize and embody the chance of transcending his or her own habitus and winning the battle by generating a new system of inclinations as living proof for the efficacy of the coaching mechanism, the coaches’ war is still on, as it is for the coachees.

3.5.2. The Fourth Case: Aslı, 35, Life Coach and Visual Communication The situation of Aslı, who is partially disabled (she has difficulty in moving and standing) is related to very existential issues as well as socially constructed concerns. Because her disease has caused some physical deformations in her body, for a long time, she experienced an isolated and unhappy life. But, her discovery of self-help literature, she realized that a different world was possible if she changed her point of view. Because of the norms of the society and the world of images, she developed inclinations towards concealing herself, feelings of embarrassment and failure, and the perceptions of worthlessness and uselessness.

Nonetheless, thanks to methods in the world of personal growth, she started to see a new system of possibilities in front of her. In this way, she became a professional life coach in addition to her job in the sector of visual communication. She also became a columnist in a famous newspaper by continuing her duties as a member of an association for disabled people at the same time. This whole picture looks like a very influential story of resolution connected with the transformation of habitus. However, as “a system of generative schemes permitting individual innovation”, the rooted dispositions appear in the form of “expressions, thoughts and perceptions” (Bourdieu, 1977, p. 95). Here is the thing. While the healthy people experience a depressive life, I have a much happier life as a disabled person. This situation sounds weird to people and they started to asked why I am in this condition. In a sense, they are crushed and they provoke themselves. This makes me very happy.

71 These sorts of expressions indicate the ongoing existence of a hierarchy in her mind between disabled and “other-normal” people. Through it, she gains a seat in the coaching world by abasing her own condition. That is to say her apparent success in life both in material and spiritual terms rests upon the marginalization of her disease and imputing supremacy to so-called “healthy” people in this way. This seems like a sort of self-made worthlessness as distinct from a socially constructed one.

What is more, although throughout the interview and her writings, she talks about her joy related to connecting with people by setting a good example for them and about her love for humanity; her statements about the way of transforming the personality rely on a kind of psychological isolation. Because the people around us usually restrict our viewpoints and actions, it is an obligation to play ostrich in order to become a happy and confident person. This encourages a mechanical relationship in which one pays no mind to what other people say. In this sense, the socialization process she says she underwent after discoering the self-help world, is built upon a calculated and technical exchange, with the exclusion of so-called “pessimistic” people. From this point of view, the existence of other people makes sense as far as they are beneficial for your motivation. This circumstance appears to lead to new alienations from affiliations and also from any sense of belonging while this sort of sheltered social relations based on a list of articles provides the space for living in a world of one’s own without sincere interactions which are indeed encouraged by the ideal of “being your own life coach.” I have always said that people should be a little selfish. I do not mean it in a bad way. Do not hear, see and know. The confidence develops in this way. Otherwise, you cannot get out of it.

3.6. The Taste Mapping in the Coaching World: the omnivore style In his famous book of Distinction, Bourdieu (2015a, p. 36-38) claims that tastes are both indicators and producers of the classifications in society. He says that these tastes make sense according to their social value and the way they are used in social terms to position agents in relation with one another in the complicated network of relations of class habitus. In this respect, the judgments of tastes of both of the coaches and coachees, demonstrate the points of distinction in the system of social

72 significations in the context of Turkey. Although there is no an overall study about the structuring of diverse tastes with regards to different classes of people, interpretations can be made by presenting the taste mapping of the respondents.

Accordingly, in general, the respondents explain their preferences in many different areas in line with Peterson’s “cultural omnivore” thesis. This term means that in opposition to the old elitist upper and middle classes, the new ones are interested in both the legitimate, high culture practices as well as the more popular forms of activities or goods. In this way, they exhibit a new kind of symbolic power which relies on the the capacity to comprehend all kinds of tastes and to be democratic or tolerant post-modern selves (As cited in Warde, Wright& Gayo-Cal, 2007, p.144-145). This situation does not point out a lack of hierarchical classification in their evaluation of different kinds of goods, but only a sort of flexibility (As cited in Warde et al., 2007, p.145).

In this sense, in the matter of eat out, while the sample of my study emphasize the local and famous restaurants like some kebab shops, at the same time, the popular fast food places or cafes like Midpoint are also mentioned, accompanied by Italian or Korean restaurants. Again, in terms of consumption of clothing, most of them specify that the popular stores in the shopping malls, the district bazaars, or boutiques are all the places to go for shopping. Additionally, the musical tastes of respondents also have a big range from classical Western music, jazz, and rock to popular music, arabesque, and Turkish classical or folkloric music. So the tastes have a lot of diversified features related to local customs, neo-liberal standards, and also the high cultural values of the Western world. These tastes are shaped around the Western life-style myth, which necessitates the enacting of Westernized practices in daily life to be distinguished as culturally higher-class people (Üstüner& Holt, 2010, p. 49).

Here, this seemingly inconsistent picture is probably as a result of the abovementioned clash between the tastes deriving from the dispositions versus willpower of the respondents, as the case of the new petite bourgeoisie (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 473). On the on hand, in line with the objective conditions that the inherited

73 habitus is the product of, “realistic choices” are always made with a technical or functional logic away from the appreciation of symbolic power (Bourdieu, 1984, p.417). But, on the other hand, the dispositions deriving from the habitus of the new middle class paves the way for the desire to invent and experience a sufficiently intellectual life. As a result, respondents try to obtain expressionist, unique, and self- respecting kinds of tastes to represent their distinctive lives (Featherstone, 2013, p. 162). As an illustration, Pelin depicts her selection about the consumption of food and clothing by exhibiting a complicated portrait of her “cognitive and motivating structures” (Bourdieu, 1977, p. 79). I do my shopping at markets. I don’t want to accustom myself to anything. It is very important for me to be compatible. Today, I am going to this market and next day to the other one. There is nothing in my life to cause any sort of dependency. If something is cheap in a market, then, I prefer it or some markets can be closer to my home. So, I might simply go to Bim or Mopaş just because they are close. (Pelin, 31, Visual Communication, Coachee)

I buy my clothes generally from the district bazaars, rather than shopping malls, in order to find new clothes. I like the little boutiques at certain districts or sometimes I also go to the chain stores to buy something I liked in advertisements. I have no obsession about brands. I try to buy the clothes in which I feel good. In daily life, I decide what I am going to wear according to my feelings within that day. (Pelin,31, Visual Communication, Coachee)

Here, Pelin tries to present her tastes within the framework of the customized narration of coaching (which based on the foregrounding of the wishes of the “inner soul”) and consequently, they are all turned into signifiers of high cultural belongingness. That is to say, by rendering even the functional properties of the materials as ways of constructing and exhibiting the free and unique self-identity, she converts everything to the elements of pleasure in accordance with the “morality of pleasure” (Bourdieu ,1984, p. 367). This kind of psychologization is made particularly through the specification of personal feelings that are used as means of extracting the pleasure from commodities. I generally like the upbeat music. But it depends on my mood. I also like the slow music, in general, popular music. However, when necessary, I listen to different kinds of music too. I listen to every type of music, which sounds nice at that moment. (Pelin, 31, Graphic Designer, Coachee)

74 I have no obsession about the brands. I prefer clothes, that are suitable for my body, and that I am comfortable with. (Sevim, 38, Teacher& Life Coach)

We eat out whenever we feel like doing it, especially when the children want to eat kebab or fish. (Sevim, 38, Teacher & Life Coach)

On the issue of aesthetic dispositions related to practices like going to the theater or to museums, a sort of “cultural good will” can be seen. This means that especially the members of the petite bourgeoisie class are inclined to accept and honor legitimate tastes while their anxieties about incomprehension or the lack of information or practice continue their existence (Bourdieu, 2015a, p. 464).

In this way, usually some of the respondents perpetually mention their love for cultural activities but say that they cannot engage in such activities because of their work or the price of the activities, whereas others say that they have gone often to galleries or theaters but could not specify any details about the museums or theaters. This situation indicates the gap between the consumption and the attainment of something cultural, which people try to transcend by using the coaching practice and to approach to every practice in their lives spiritual and profound manner. This is also relevant for types of books and films people prefer. Most of the respondents read self-help books and watch usually adventure, fantasy, or romance movies. In this sense, by consuming such materials, they strive for believing, inspiring, and obtaining their own heroic story.

3.7. The Transition from one Doxa to a New one: the competent individual The concept of doxa refers to “pre-reflexive intuitive knowledge shaped by experience to unconscious inherited physical relational predispositions” (Grenfell, 2008, p. 120). As mentioned in the theoric chapter, thanks to this taken-for-granted body of thoughts and judgments, individuals comply with present social order without thinking critically about it (Grenfell, 2008, p. 119). For this reason, they misrecognize the ways power relations are constructed because of the symbolic violence imposed upon them through normalized categorizations or viewpoints

75 (Swartz, 2015, p. 129). At this point, the world of coaching can be seen as a tool to destroy socially accepted and unquestioningly adopted doxic assumptions.

In the books of life coaches, a certain system of thought can be found based on an imagery of an “energy world.” According to these books, there is a great power called the “universe” (evren) which is believed to have the capability and strength to hear what we say and create experiences in accordance with what we believe. That is, the universe is conceived as a determinative subject that realizes our thoughts within a certain pattern. In this system, our life is being shaped according to the energy level we situated at, and the kind of energy emanating from us to the outer world. This point of view puts all the responsibility of everything related to our life on our own shoulders. So if something goes wrong in your life or you cannot reach your goals no matter how hard you struggle for them, the reason is always your negative/prohibitor thoughts. Within this context, our biggest enemy is our own ego. Our own ego is composed of stereotypes that are built up in our childhood or puberty through some events or reactions we got from our environment. This ego does not stop following us even in adulthood, and impedes our efforts to change or progress because continuing to live the routine in our “comfort zone” in safety is the easier option.

On this issue, the famous life coach Aykut Oğut, who has an significant role in terms of publicizing the occupation of life coaching in Turkey says “Those pieces of memories you are still able to remember but not know why reflects the moments at which your ego has turned your decisions (instantaneous self-judgments by considering certain events) to a kind of law. Latently, we cannot forget these moments due to the fact that your ego always makes you live similar experiences every day” (Oğut, 2011, p. 55). Supposedly, “after a law was legislated, we don’t question it anymore and also accept is as a fact reflecting our self. Like so, we constantly produce automatical ideas and responses about the topics coded in our minds with a law” (Çuhadaroğlu, 2014, p.31).

In addition to the childhood experiences, taboos of the society based on commonsense knowledge play a crucial role in terms of forming these “laws.” Case

76 in point, Oğut (2011, pp.138-140-41) points out some widely accepted but problematic phrases about earnings or richness in Turkey: “Para dediğin elinin kiri” (Money is the dirt of your hand), “Fazla para adamı bozar abicim” (Too much money spoils the man), and “Parayla saadet olmaz” (Money doesn’t give happiness). Here, we can say that the ego is composed of the doxa imposed by society, which we embrace in time and the habitus we grown in. However, he says that we should withstand the instructions of our egos, which promote certain fears or anxieties by using certain coaching technics. Indeed, in our interviews, respondents always stressed the importance of being aware of and then wiping their doxic opinions out. I had this fear of worthlessness and being ignored that I had undertaken from my mum. Once, my coach told to me to close my eyes and then asked me about the first memory that comes to my mind. I thought of a very irrelevant event. It was the time when my father bought us a house and we were stepping in for the first time. Normally, it should be a very pleasant memory for a child to have a new house, a new room. Yet, what I remember is my mother’s expression when she first saw the house. She was shocked and disappointed towards the fact that the house was not in a neighborhood she liked, nor was it decorated very well. Because she did not have the chance to decorate her own house as a housewife which means that my father simply ignored her. And I feel that l load all the negativity of this memory on my shoulders. (İrem, 26, working in a business intelligence company, Coachee)

There are many wrong beliefs. It might be everything. ‘’I can earn money from my writings’’, this is a belief. But, formerly, I said that I doubt whether I can earn money from this work or not. I try to look at everything a little more critical now. There are social rules. But, who establish these rules, my friend? There are rules but I exist too. Recently, I have taken a session about money. I said that I want to have a big house or I want to become richer. My coach said to me it is not impossible but I learned that the biggest wealth is to feel wealthy. (Neriman, 38, Housewife, Coachee)

The coaches mainly propose this kind of perspective to make coachees feel safe in current chaotic world where no one knows something for sure. Since, the meta- narrations like science, religion, or political ideologies have little value as tools for making sense of life anymore for many people around the world, the only way to build a coherent and meaningful life is to highlight the power of the personality as a material and spiritual being (Featherstone, 2013, p. 73). However, is it really a way to emancipate from various pressures and to reach an absolute freedom and control at the end as it sounds in the first place? My claim is that this is only to reconstruct the

77 power relations by conceptualizing them as the spiritual outcomes of the acts of individuals.

Simply put, although coaches claim to clear the mind of coachees of several doxas, which were socially produced, a new doxa has been produced along the sessions. This doxa is very compatible to the present world system, which has been sacralizing the individual choice. This is what I call the doxa of “competent individual” who has all the power to organize his life and he is capable of ruling everything in his life if he really wants and works for it. This depiction is very similar to the premise of the neoliberalism, which relies on the power of individual. From this aspect, the difference of coaching mentality from other sum of arguments is that it convinces people a totally unusual design of world, in a sense by substituting for the rooted meta- narrations. To put it another way, this practice provides people with a foundation upon which they are able to comprehend not only their own experiences but also events happening all over the world and also it does not demand extra effort from them for the well-being of others.

However, the doxa of “competent individual” is built on an imagery of universe, which creates negative or positive events according to the amount and type of energy someone has. For this reason, coachees must continuously check over their state of mind in order to reach their aims. To enhance their motivations, they write or repeat affirmations whenever they feel bad, or they make meditations to purify the negative energies. In this manner, Oğut states in one of his books that he always follows his energy by listening his inner world and questions the rise and falls of his energy (Oğut, 2015, p.77).

While trying to be free individuals far away from the stereotypical beliefs, which derives from their habitus, coachees are encouraged to observe and regulate perpetually their ideas, fears, feelings, and even their words. So, although, in the beginning, the aim is to create an own world without any mechanism of panopticon which gives authority to the external powers of economic system or social structures, this constant self-control practice result in the construction of a “new panopticon.”

78 Because this perspective is a part of self-help culture, we cannot see it outside of the dominant self-discipline mechanisms of our time. The only difference is that the guardian of the power disguises itself in the envisagement of “universe of energy.” My coach was saying to me that all that is outside is the reflection of the inner side. First, make the inner transformation and then, pass to the dimension of action. These are the issues, which are difficult to accept for me. Whenever a difficulty comes up now, I ask myself what I have thought. (Pelin, 31, Visual Communication, Coachee)

This new panopticon also contributes to a planned depolitization process or more clearly, a process of “spiritual politization.” The most fundamental belief is to think of every subject as a reflection of energy. In this road, this point of view indirectly covers up the mechanisms of inequality and sufferings. It trivializes realities and turning them into representations to be avoided in order to have a high-level motivation. In other words, they suppose that the majority of the bad events are the results of negative energies and because of this, we should keep away from them. In this road, the seemingly selfish thinking is turned into a collectivistic ideal. According to that, since we are “pieces of the same ocean called the universe which is based on emotional vibrations” and for this reason, we are closely connected in spiritual terms, there is no benefit to whining about unfairness or cruelties. Our duty is to become positive by thinking and acting positively and so, creating favorable effects on the ocean at the same time. That means that if we are happy and active, all the world will become so, too, sooner or later. At this juncture, coaching language and self-help principle is presented as the recipe for a contented personal life and also a better world. Indeed, I don’t think whether the world is getting worse or better, because this is only my perspective. Every period is beautiful in itself. I think that there is an energetic expansion. In my opinion, there are some positive developments. The events may be seen as negative but I have never preferred to be hopeless for my country, for my family and for the universe. (Pelin, 31, Visual Communication, Coachee)

If the coaching language spreads from person to person, the number of happy people will grow. (Sevim, 38, Life Coach& Teacher)

We definitely need to protect ourselves. I don’t watch television. As I mentioned before, every minute our subconscious mind is programed and the

79 media is one of the biggest tools, which program our minds. You cannot prevent this. There is no such thing like that I am watching television but I don’t allow the media organs to program my mind. Because of this, I don’t read depressive news or I don’t communicate with people who are perpetually talking about troubles. (Aslı, 35, Life Coach & Visual Communication)

This type of perception brings about a negative side effect on political views of the clients. Since the coaching attitude towards life is based on personal capacity to create a different self and experiences, the political world loses its meaning for them. This is because “politicization depersonalizes personal experiences” (Bourdieu, 1984, p.367). In their new world, politics has no right and power to capture people’ lives due to its manipulations. The respondents position political world as an illusion, that cannot be known for sure deeply, and they see even the politicians who are close to their worldviews as passive or unnecessary. It can be asserted that the majority of them support more Kemalist or leftish views in political and social terms but in general they express their opinions about this issue with a big unwillingness and boredom. It seems like the issue of politics is not really a part of their lives. Indeed, by rendering the economic-political life an indecipherable puzzle, the abstract boundaries of the personal life are able to be drawn around only individual practices and a close social circle. Nowadays only thing the policitians do is to speak and to show off. I don’t like these type of persons who show off. (Serkan, 36, Mechanical Engineer, Coachee)

I think the political setting in Turkey is not equal. Some people fill their pockets with the money, which needs to be used for the benefit society by making investments in the areas of education or health. This is the society which has suffered the biggest injustice. I don’t believe that the elections have been hold properly because of the government.(Pelin, 31, Visual Communication, Coachee)

As part of this logic about politics, a considerable number of coaches or coachees do not want to put themselves in a certain “socio-economic” class. They even need to have the meaning of the socio-economic status explained to them when they are asked a question about it. In general, I realized a kind of feeling uneasiness when respondents answered this question. Namely, while some of them think that the

80 classification of classes creates very segregationist categorizations and they do not believe in these kinds of distinctions, at the same time, others had a difficulty with regards to identifying their class status. The financial situation of my family was very good previously. My father was the boss of his own work. He was a merchant. They send me to a private school. What is this? This is the bourgeoisie class. But, afterwards, my father’s business fell apart and my dad became bankrupt. This is also related to the social developments. There have been a change in the class structure. In my childhood, a person from middle class could register his child for a private school, but, nowadays only the very rich ones can do it. I don’t know which class to put myself now. (Serkan, 36, Mechanical Engineer, Coachee)

I see myself as a citizen of world. There is no classification, definitely no. I don’t make classification. (Neriman, 38, Housewife)

In spite of that, their efforts to regulate different areas of life through coaching are their attempts to rise their class status. In this sense, in the logic of coaching, different fields like career, health, or social relations are constructed as different markets in which people try to increase their values and head off others by using the techniques of coaching as strategies. İrem tries to “attract” powerful men materially and spiritually who are looking for serious relationships by striving to overcome her fear of death and her inclinations to help problematic guys in order to have a happy romantic relartionship, while Serkan tries to say no to his interfering father for the first time in his life to find and reach a really satisfying job according to his own values. Here, hiring a life coach refers to an investment to get a high position in different fields with higher cultural, social, or symbolic types of capital by applying capital conversion techniques. In other words, a habitus is always a class habitus, and a struggle to change habitus through certain methods always means an initiative for upward class mobility (Weininger, 2014, p. 122).

Taking into account these points, we come to the conclusion that the command of the doxas stressing the importance of personal effort based on the neo-liberal system determines the ground and the limits of the possible discussions by legitimizing only certain styles of expression and comprehension (Bourdieu, 1977, p. 169). These doxas are composed of the orthodox views that form our fundamental way of thinking as

81 an “imperfect substitute of doxa” and the heterodox opinions that generates different sorts of approaches to issues but only within the boundaries of dichotomies created by doxa and orthodoxy (Bourdieu, 1977, p. 169). In this sense, on the one hand, coaches claim that the innovative viewpoint of coaching helps people to annihilate the oppressive ideals of the collectivistic culture in Turkey, which pose obstacles for a more satisfied life as a sort of heterodoxy in local terms. But, at the same time, it is the fact that the emphasis upon the priority of self, the power of the individual as the first and last force and the focus on the mechanisms of own soul or mind, exhibits the orthodox line of vision in the postmodern world.

CHAPTER 4 THE AGENCY OF COACHING PRACTICE: CONFIGURATION OF A NEW SELF THROUGH A SPECIFIC REGIME OF TRUTH

4.1. Therapeutic (Re)Construction of Selves of Coachees: a narration of a divided persona Following the symbolic interactionist theory, the self is a socially produced and constructed total of representations (Lemert & Branaman, 1997, p. xlvi). This means that the individuals are ascribed to some characteristics by others as a result of their performances in the daily life (Lemert & Branaman, 1997, p. xlix). In other words, this perspective relies on the fact that individuals do not have a pure or an intrinsic quality of self, which makes them different from other people, but rather, the self, is only “a dramatic effect arising diffusely from a scene” (Lemert & Branaman, 1997, xlix).

However, the whole mentality of coaching relies on the rediscovery and actualization of the essential self, which is claimed to be degenerated or damaged due to social norms or pressures. In this way, life coaches allege that the fundamental aim of the coaching sessions is for coachees to recognize and discover themselves. This internal journey is built upon the answers which allegedly come from the depths of souls of coachees and this is the path for them to become the leaders of their own lives (Dorum,2013 ; Bıyıklıoğlu, 2011). This framing of a lost but unique self, which is ready to come out, is always emphasized to encourage the depressive persons to hire a coach as a hope who have experienced abovementioned troublesome events. Coaching is an internal journey through which the person can discover himself and we accompany coachee in this process as coaches upon his/her request. We review the strong and weak characteristic of the coachee and also look at “what he/she like or dislike?”, ‘’what he/she dream about if he/she think independently from the constraints?”, and “which type of cognitive obstacles he/she has in the way of his/her dreams ?”. If the person recognizes oneself more deeply, he/she will realize the part of his/her potential, which he/she has never realized before. Also, by thinking more positively, he/she can progress towards his/her aims. (Emir, 44, Life Coach)

83 This kind of perspective basically derives from the discursive construction of selfhood by self-help culture and it is also promoted by the obsession of therapeutic self- narrative. It is encouraged that in order the individuals to take control of their lives and to realize their desired life visions, they must get rid of the any external influences on them, including any sort of dependency to their inner circle (Mcgee, 2005, p.172 ; Rimke, 2000, p. 65). Indeed, many scholars view this autonomous self-construction as an obligation of post-modern times in which there is no strict authority or source of meaning except own self to provide people with an identity to have a coherent life story (Giddens, 2014, p. 245 ; Rimke 2000, p. 73).

Twenge (2009, p.13-15) points out also the tendency towards breaking connections with social values as a feature of the “generation me” which contains people born between 1970 and 1990, whose life motto is “the priority is always my satisfaction.” This situation is perceived as a result of the rising narsistic culture which highlightes self-centeredness everywhere from media to education models (Twenge, 2009, p.13).

Within this context, coaching practice represents itself as an opportunity to create a unique personal story. We can say that this form of autobiographic narration relies on the assembly of certain events and experiences based on a systematic arrangement, that is underlain by a main point upon which the structure of narrative builds (As cited in Işık, 2015, p. 108). In this way, the experiences that are very much unrelated to each other, are able to be connected with a causality principle (Brockmeier & Carbaugh, 2001, p. 96).

This is exactly the point where the therapeutic discourse is used in coaching sessions. By and large, this discursive practice builds cause and effect relationships throughout the life time of coachees through which some problematic events or challenging arguments are attributed to the impact of past memories (Illouz, 2011, p. 78). Illouz (2011, p. 84) qualifies this psychoanalytic narration as a “narration of pain,” which paves the way for an “epideictic rhetoric,” that discredits past and proclaims a perfect future (Işık, 2015, p. 116). To put it differently, at every turn along the coaching

84 sessions, a kind of source or reason is tried to be found in order to explain and rehabilitate the undesirable experiences or unattainable purposes of coachees. Maybe a bad memory from childhood, a wrong belief, or inappropriate judgments based on misunderstandings are the possible causes of an unhappy life.

In this way, the life of the coachee is divided into two parts. Throughout the interviews, almost all of the coachees say that before they hired a life coach, they could not control their fears or anxieties, and they were very stressful because they had a low-level of awareness. Again, they could not enjoy from life due to their victim psychology or their communication with people rested upon conflict and more importantly, they did not know “really” their selves. However, with the coaching practice, they claimed that they have been enlightened and they are able to discover their “real” selves. I isolated myself. Afterwards I realized that. I am trying to become myself right now. Indeed, this is a very beautiful thing. I try to do what I like. I don’t have a depressive life now. I have a good relation with my children. I don’t see my son like I used to be . (Neriman, 38, Housewife)

Before hiring my coach, I have already solved the system a little bit but I couldn’t accept it. Now, because I have accepted and forgave some events in my life, they don’t bother me anymore. The people who tell lies don’t make me feel uncomfortable. I accept them as liers. (İrem, 26, working in a business intelligence company)

All these quotes signify a reconstruction of past according to a certain sense making which is made in the present time with a purpose by eliminating the other possible explanations (As cited in Brockmeier, 1997, p. 194). Although it is a social construction to interpret past events and reposition the self within the framework of these events in a particular way, the narration is conceptualized as an absolute truth concerning the person’s life story (As cited in Brockmeier, 1997, p. 177). Here, the fundamental aim of this narration is to create a “triumphant self.” In general, those people who are dissatisfied with themselves and their lives, who are not able to have a balanced life, who cannot reach their aims, and who cannot realize themselves, attempt to hire a life coach. So, in the first place, unless the coachee positions himself as a broken- down and an ineffective person to reach a desired life, he probably does not accept

85 the fact that he needs a life coach to restore his life. For this reason, on closer inspection, beyond solving the problems related to a variety of subjects, the coachees is need of a success story at the moment he meets with the life coach.

In this way, the coaches establish a visionary world in which the previous unhappiness or failures of coachees are accounted for while also engraving in their memory the paradigm that “you were stressful and nervous because of the exterior influences of family or society but if you dare to become really yourself, you will reach the meaning of life and you will realize that you are perfect and strong enough to live your dream life.” This kind of views find out the image of a powerful self, who resists the difficulties and impositions steadfastly to cleanse the wastes sticking on his mind and soul, and in the end, acquires the recipe of a satisfied self and life. In other words, this newly emerging autobiography is formed like a tale of heroic achievement in the coaching process. What about the fears I had overcame? The most obvious example is to start living by myself. I guess I thought before that I couldn’t handle living by myself. There is a very few women who live on their own. My sister or my friends also say that they cannot live alone. Some of them assert that they would fear while others say that they would be bored if they live alone. I am saying to myself right now that wow! I can do something most of the people aren’t able to do. This was what I want for a long time but I couldn’t dare to do. Then, one day, I fought with my sister again and I took my laptop and my purse and then I left the house. (Pelin, 31, Graphic Designer)

The depressive period that I mentioned before is very important to me. I don’t say that I got ruined or I’m wiped out about every experience I have anymore. Okay, we can be upset but there is nothing after it. It is very possible to get in trouble. But, that is okay. I feel myself more human, more self-confident, and great, as a citizen of world. (Neriman, 38, Housewife)

Following Foucault, this type of approach to autobiography can be seen as a psychological “regime of truth” which determines the right or wrong way of identity constructions by suggesting and normalizing some discourses as proper or not (Usher, Bryant & Johnston, 2005, p. 75-76). Since this is the discourse, “producing knowledge and meaning of it”, the commodification of past by laying the burdens on the “fake self” under the external influence of family or society, indicates the production of a certain kind of relation to self (As cited in Hall, 2003, p. 44).

86 Bluntly speaking, the division founded between past and present self through the narration, rests upon the therapeutic meaning making, embedded in the existent cultural and social context (Rose, 1999, p. xviii). In other words, this individualized and fragmented self-narration is very related to before cited neo-liberal system based on ever-changing relations and identifications, and which asks for self-directed individuals, who comply with every novelty, without attaching something to any deep value (As cited in Rimke, 2000, p. 71). Against this backdrop of chaotic order, coaching mindset, which benefit from Freudian perspective to a great extent, accommodates people with a flexible and freestanding way of personal narration, by creating a superficial self-confidence.

4.2. Does Society Really Withdraw from the Stage? Notwithstanding totally the remarks concerning the depreciation of social norms coming from family, religion or state and the emergent lack of authority which generates the necessity of “do-it-yourself-identity”, I claim that even the coaching practice whose main goal is to free individuals form the societal effects, is based on the creation of socially requested images of identities (Elliot, 2014, p. 46-162). Simply put, in general we see that the coaches appeal to the coaches whenever they fail at actualization of various culturally situated depictions of certain roles in daily life. Maybe, at this point the statements about the revelation of individual potentials, through dispelling the involvement of social regulations into the self-construction, make sense in terms of relieving coachees.

However, indeed, via the psychoanalytic narration, the previous inabilities are pathologized in such a way that the new self-construction is adapted to a reframed version of “ideal self-descriptions.” All of these descriptions are rooted in the “ideal women” discourse5 encouraged especially through media like said in the third chapter (Saktanber, 2010, p. 189). Namely, today’s society requests a perfect woman in the direction of the neo-liberal mentality, demanding the utilization of every sort

5 The term of ‘’discourse’’ is used according to the definition of Foucault, as ‘’a group of statements which provide a language for talking about- a way of representing the knowledge about- a particular moment at a particular historical moment. It defines the acceptable and intelligible ways to talk,write and conduct oneself by excluding others.’’ (Hall, 2003, p.44)

87 of competences, by proposing the expression of “be all one can be” (Mcgee, 2005, p. 175). Nonetheless, this ambiguous slogan leads to in a way a “gender trouble” because seemingly very different characteristics are suggested with regards to the structuring of super woman. (Gauntlett, 2005, p. 189)

On the one hand, there is more modern type of a woman construction. That is to say that a woman must be independent and powerful, having a high education and a prestigious job which reflects her individuality (Yuna, 2013, p. 173). Besides, she has a very social life with her diverse hobbies like pilates, tango or travelling (Yuna, 2013, p. 173). Within this scope, the image of oppressed and idle women is eliminated in favor of a mindful woman identity with a working life based on an authentic self- realization. This representation alludes to the new definition of “success” in our day, which is not related to the amount of earnings but rather, hinges on the existence of self-satisfaction and enjoyment while working. (Mcgee, 2005, p. 19) A case in a point, İrem ascribes her troubles in the firm to a spiritual explanation and in this way, she can sustain her image of “having a good job” in a democratic and personally satisfactory work environment (Rose, 1999, p. 56). When I started to go to work, the general manager kept saying that there can’t be such a thing or there can’t be such an ignorance. I learned the word of being ignored at the age of 25, from him. But, I can see now he was my mirror. Because of my fear of being ignored, he kept using this word. Therefore, an awareness occurs. You can look yourself from outside like a third eye when your awareness rises. For example, my boss is experiencing major depression right now. I see the reflection of my old self who postponed works, did nothing, and who was unhappy and angry, while looking at him. You have disciplined yourself according to your reflections and you have gone up in this way. (İrem, 26, working in a business intelligence company)

As for Pelin, who were told in detail in the third chapter, it can said that she left her safe job and started to work independently in order to exhibit more creative works, away from the ordered designs coming from the upper managers. Here, we cannot see a reframing of past in line with the desired images but rather a direct constitution of demanded identity. I love this job very much because it gives me the opportunity of selecting the works I want to do. My work and my private life are so much intertwined that

88 I can’t separate them. But, because I can make my plans by myself, I can’t give up this kind of a working style. (Pelin, 31, Visual Communication)

Also, a lot of magazines spur women in terms of dealing with their lookings and it is always stated that by doing exercise, they should preserve their fit bodies. In this way, “the bodies of woman are transformed into the projects indicating a kind of cultural capital” (Ahıska & Yenal, 2006, p. 10-18). Here, the being of well kept or beautiful implies the ways of obtaining a “decent man” as a newly emerging ability of assertive women (Mutlu, 2009, p. 76). In a similar vein, the strategies for “becoming an ideal girlfriend” have constituted the most popular pages of woman magazines for several decades (Özdemir, 2009, p. 132). Regarding the relationship issue, also a love story possessing deep meanings in lovers’ lives is promoted around a narration of happiness (As cited in Gauntlett, 2005, p.79). About this issue, by attributing her unsettling private life to lack of positive energy, İrem renders herself an admirable and popular girl, attracting many a lot of men at the present time. When you behaved as if you had a boyfriend, then you would attract that energy automatically. After repeating affirmations, men compliment me and they ask for my telephone number. This is because, you fill your subconscious mind with affirmations like “I am precious”. It reflects on your energy and your stand. (İrem, 26, Workig in a business intelligence company)

On the other hand, in parallel with the traditional norms, women are expected to have personal traits like being compassionate, understanding, self-sacrificing and emotional (Saktanber, 2000, p. 195). This feature is very much related to the discursive formation of “ideal motherhood”, Silier (2011, p. 131) asserts that by constructing a well-defined pattern about “how to be a good mother”, a certain “motherhood ideology” is created and this discourse is generally take-for-granted in society. In this road, women are given the duty of devoting their selves to children in a conventional way and also duty of raising “perfect project-children” through usage of scientific proposals in a post-modern way (Silier, 2011, p. 116-133). This mostly explains the situation of Neriman who has problem regarding her child’s disease. In the coaching process, she tries to reconstruct herself again a good mother with a perfect child, by abandoning her negative, accusive arguments.

89 My biggest transformation was to become myself, to find myself. There is a process going on like; I had an unhappy business life but a happy family. Then, I got depressed because of my child’s illness. I perceived it as a very bad thing and I thought my child is incomplete. But, at the end, when I looked at the past, I realized that I had lost myself. (Neriman, 38, Housewife)

To sum up, in every sphere of life, women experience the problem of formation of an identity because we talk about an inconsistent image, based on “more instrumentalistic or rationalistic perspective into the life at the side of more expressive or affective approaches” (As cited in Mcgee, 2005, p. 110). It goes without saying that the coachees who are impressed by these female discourses in diverse roads as members of society, strive for reaching the ideal woman in their head along the coaching process, rather than the supposed construction of almost completely sovereign and self-enclosed women.

4.3. Narrative Performance of a “Triumphant Self” In the process of interviewing, I witnessed a kind of “narrative performances of identity” by coachees regarding their before cited success story. Indeed, all of them very aware the fact that the coaching practice is generally trivialized by so many people including various experts at the department of psychology. According to them, life coaches intervene in the lives of the coaches without any educational background and this situation causes a lot of troubles (Şahintürk, 2015; Isıyel, 2016 & Güngör, 2017). We can see also some depreciatory statements like “Life coaches find the sheeps but a shepherd looking after the quadruped sheeps can’t be found” (Barbarosoğlu, 2015, p.3).

In this context, the mentioned performances can be seen “a struggle over the meanings of experiences as discourses” (As cited in Brockmeier and Carbaugh, 2001, p. 147). This denotes that the socially attached attribution to the identities of coachee as a person who is so screwed up to the extent that he needs a life coach in order to govern his life and “even” pay money for this. But, they try to represent a different image, regarding their perfect self-governance and self-confidence, by appreciating the assistances of coaches.

90 These are private issues, nobody talks about it. I don’t tell everybody that I am hiring a coach, except some old friends, who knows me well. There is a psychological aspect, that is, people can think I am not able to fix my life. (Ayça, 34, Higher Education)

Through coaching practice and self-development, you discover and question yourself and it always contributes to you. It indicates that you are even able to get rid of the things or relations, which don’t give you any joy. You gain a different vision. You can look at everything in an analytic way. We perceive a lot of things within the borders of our own reality but life isn’t like that. This created a big change. (Ayça, 34, Higher Education)

Broadly speaking, in the way of exhibiting their heroic narrative, the coachees constantly engage in the role of life coaches by positioning me like a novice client. Under the normal conditions, we can talk about an “expression game” played between me as an observer trying to get information from the coachees as subjects trying to control their way of giving information (As cited in Lemert &Branaman, 1997, p.Ixxii). Even though I strived for the unveiling of the “unwitting moves” of the coachees which is defined as “subject's observable behavior that is unoriented to the assessment an observer might be making of”, at the same time they were very aware of the fact that I was making a fieldwork there and undertook an enterprise for designation of my inferences (Goffman, 1970, p.11-17).

However, they have also various strategies in order to construct a higher position than me, as people with a certain cultural capital coming from coaching. To do this, from the beginning of our communication, almost every one of them framed the interview like a spiritual conversation with a friend by making jokes, directing some questions also to me for ratification. All the more amazing, they tried to integrating me into their social world like inviting me to a sport class that would be done after the interview or adding me to the e-mail list of a article group following the writings of one of the coachees. So, on the one hand, the assumed hierarchy between us is tried to be wiped by forming a casual relationship probably in order to exhibit a pleased and an untroubled personality. On the other hand, also the framing about the impression was made through the examinations about my thesis or my life and not answering of some questions really or at least glossing over several of them as an

91 effort to regulate the situation within limits adjusting to their intended performance. In this road, their embracement of coaching mindset embodied in their present coaching performance by means of the relation with me, as a manifestation of authentic self-improvement. Ferzan: What type of people should hire a life coach in your opinion? Neriman: I think that everybody who feels unhappy should hire a coach. Do you feel happy for example? Ferzan: From some aspects, I am happy but also from some aspects, I feel unhappy about my life. Neriman: Then, you should go. Let’s everybody ask their selves the question of “Am I living a happy life?” If they really want to be happy and to change something, they should hire a coach definitely.

Behind this almost miraculous transformation story, there are different stories penetrating the cracks of the fiction biography. Namely, over the course of the interviews, I observed a lot of times discrepancies that create an imperfection in terms of forming a straight personal front. Under normal conditions, in order to perform their roles in a convincing way, the agents should harmonize their appearances and manners properly in dramaturgical terms (Goffman, 2014, p. 35). It means that the coaches’ narrations about their supposedly “enlightened” personas are able to gain validity as long as their body language, wordings and attitudes unite in a definitive form. However, especially while answering some questions, they give off strange or anxious impressions to me. To illustrate, Neriman who is talking about her big happiness and joy associated with the becoming herself in the coaching process, didn’t say clearly even the name of the disease of her child even though I asked about it a few times directly or indirectly. Also, she turned her eyes away while mentioning the discomfort deriving from the process of disease and its treatment. Here, the mentioned apathy and condonation for good or bad experiences in life and also the construction of strong and delighted character fell apart.

In addition to that, even though Pelin declared her freedom by starting to live on her own, she also said that she began to get bored due to solitariness and planned to go to some courses in order to become socialized. As for Serkan who said that his self- confidence raised in the process and even he started to help his friends feeling more

92 depressed, the question about his past experiences with a psychologist suddenly transformed him into a self-enclosed person who didn’t want to mention about his memory as framing it “very special.”

So, because the narrative performance is an instantaneous and mutual production, actualized in the time of interaction, we cannot expect a totally coherent and rational story (Gubrium& Holstein, 1998, p.166). By and large, narrative is only about presentation of a meaningful whole through usage of certain linkages or causations between events and also engagement in editing by changing the positions of pronouns (Gubrium& Holstein, 1998, p.166-171). Within this framework, according to Riesmann, the narrations should be investigated as part of the social context from which they obtain resources like culturally situated discourses or significations for their story (Wiles et al., 2005, p. 92).

In this road, the discrepancies along the sayings can be interpreted as the reflection of post-modern self-construction. As like stated earlier, this notion of ego hinges on the capability for elasticity in terms of fitting into every new situation and this circumstance not only leads to contradictions with regards to composition of identity, but even asks for that (Elliott, 2014, p. 154). Bauman attracts attention to this development by asserting that everything is about the streaming present time, without forming any relation of before and after, which is supposed to establish a tangible sense-making (As cited in Elliott, 2014, p. 154). As seen in the interviews partially, nowadays, the momentary happenings can swallow down every nonsense or conflicting narrations and render them ostensibly an eclectical unity, signifies the energy of innovation as a virtue.

4.4. The Use of Spiritual Techniques for Self-Change In order to engender the mentioned “ideal self-images”, coachees use some spiritual or rational coaching techniques under the guidance of life coaches. In this road, like stated in the third chapter, above all, the coachees should resist the seductions and misdirection of their egos. To do this, the fundamental spiritual method is to communicate with the universe and also to take a series of systematic steps

93 according to coaching mindset. Primarily, it is a necessity to put their selves in the vision world of the person who has already accomplished what they want and they should act like that. So, this imagination should be inscribed in their minds and lives deeply. (The choice of becoming: olmak seçimi)

Here, the most crucial point is that they should have a level of consciousness in order to reach their dream lives. This is because, without changing their beliefs or visions, taking into action is not enough to realize their goals (Çuhadaroğlu, 2014, p.81). To illustrate, if they want to be rich, then, first of all, they need to acquire a consciousness of abundance. So, no matter how much money or how many houses they already have, the key point is to be able to focus on the existing properties and to feel rich (Oğut, 2015, p.65). By this way, they try to constitute their personalities all over again. They are no longer belong to a specific categorization of identity, rather, they become “rich selves” and they pursue a mood which would provide them the feeling of being wealthy.

In this respect, they should perform like different personas in their daily lives, which do not reflect their current situations, but it has a positive effect on realization of their wishes. If they succeed in showing well-regulated performances as rich persons, the universe imputes a self to them in line with their performances, and so, a kind of wanted self-production is made while also their financial situations start to improve (Goffman, 2014, p. 252). In other words, it is expected that in the progress of time, abovementioned personas will convert into real parts of their selves, rather than fake constructions. So, “as far as the mask presenting our intended appearance, it becomes our real self and our wanted self. Consequently, we acquire personality and we become persons” (As cited in Goffman, 2014, p. 31).

Considering Goffman’s theory about performing of various selves in daily life, the spiritual side of coaching reveals a sort of meta-role above all the other ones in such a way that the person reaches a stage where the boundaries between reality and imagination are ruined. This is the embodiment of the schizophrenic world Baudrillard talks about in which “everything is hyper-real with the hegemony of

94 images, simulations, and hallucination over the concrete existence” (Elliott, 2014, p. 149-150; As cited in Featherstone, 2013, p. 110).

The abovementioned strategies for the self-transformation consist of some rituals as well, like burning or junking the papers on which “wrong” beliefs of coachees are written in the evenings as sessions of forgiveness. Like a tribal chief who makes a spell, for example, coachees try to destroy poverty and attract richness by repeating affirmations or making visualization exercises day by day. Here, there is a sort of an opposite situation to the process of “disenchantment.” In a modernized road, caochees sacralize everything in their lives and bring up all to the level of spirituality consciously or not. By means of these spiritual methods, they are able to reach a certain phase of frequency, which refers to the amount of energy a person has. So, different opportunities or improvements can be created and attracted by the coachees by standing at a high energy level and by reframing or keying their memories or expectations. In the following examples, it can be seen that while Serkan tries to reach the mood of a relieved self, being receptive to new relationships, İrem struggles for the revelation of her ideal attractive woman image by engaging in spiritual labor. I transformed the bad scenario in the past into a different scenario that makes the negative event seem to be positive. I wrote the new scenario by myself. For example, I went to a place where I did not like before and I had a fear of going to again because I had bad memories related to that place. It was beneficial to forgive. For instance, the place, where we were right now, made me uncomfortable previously, but now I don’t feel bothered. (Serkan, 36, Mechanical Engineer)

When you behaved as if you had a boyfriend, then you would attract that energy automatically. After repeating affirmations, men compliment me and they ask for my telephone number. This is because, you fill your subconscious mind with affirmations like “I am precious”. It reflects on your energy and your stand. (İrem, 26, working in a business intelligence company)

Concerning these kind of spiritual strategies, Goffman’s (1959) distinction between “the self-as-performer” and “self-as-character” is significant. He treats individual as a performer with “psychobiological characteristics” which signify her/his “impulses, moods and energies” (Goffman, 1959, p. 56-254). As a basis, this part of self

95 encourages people to present performances in line with their “thoughts, fantasies, or desires” (As cited in Lemert & Branaman, 1997, p. xlviii-xlix). On the other hand, individual acquires a certain personal identity at the stage owing to the fact that during his performance, a definition of self is created in cooperation with the audiences (Goffman, 1959, p.252-53). Although Goffman often emphasizes that the self is a product of socialization, he also believes in the difference between “real- sacred” and “contrived-profane self” which corresponds to the segregation between self-as-performer and self-as-character. This means that everyone has a unique essence of self when moving away from the situations or places where he must behave in line with the social demands or expectations (As cited in Lemert & Branaman, 1997, p.41).

In fact, it sounds very similar to the precepts of coaching about the discovery of inner self. However, I claim that the mentioned spiritual methods obviously disprove the existence of a core self. By promoting visualization or imagination in a systematic way, the allegedly substantial performer self is positioned as an entity that individuals can create or shape at their own will. So, coaches intervene with the psychological dynamics of coachees to help them create their idealized characters, by marketing literally a mechanism for social production of identities. In this sense, the difference in meaning between being an authentic and inauthentic self, disappears and it is once again manifested that everything is constructed through socially situated interpretations.

4.5. The Use of Rational Techniques for Self-Change Apart from the spiritual side, at the same time, the coachee is obliged to make certain actions, which are determined in cooperation with the coach in order to create his/her wanted lifestyle. A prominent life coach Mert Çuhadaroğlu asserts that to achieve your aim, there is five important criteria; control, clarity, measurability, accessibility and time plan (Çuhadaroğlu, 2015, p. 235). That is to say you should be able to feel everything is under your control and it is very possible to reach your goal, the stages must be defined as clear cut, the result should be quantifiable and there has to be a well-prepared schedule (Çuhadaroğlu, 2015, p. 235). I argue that this

96 framework is very connected with the “Mcdonaldization” thesis suggested by George Ritzer.

His main attempt is to extend Weber’s theory of rationalization based on the idea that all acts of people at a micro level and operation of institutions at a macro level are determined by logical reasoning about calculations of profit and loss in modern society (Macionis & Plummer, 2012, p. 122). Notwithstanding that, Ritzer asserts that we have been living now in a mcdonalized society in which “the principles of fast- food restaurants are coming to dominate more and more aspects of society” rather than a bureaucratized society Weber proposed in which “organizations are designed to perform tasks efficiently” (Ritzer, 2002, p. 7 & Macionis & Plummer, 2012, p. 184 & Ritzer, 1983, p. 372). The paradigm of Mcdonaldization has four characteristics: efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control. (Ritzer, 2002, p. 16)

By investigating the use of rational coaching methods, I will suggest that the self- change process can be conceptualized as a mechanism of ‘’spiritual mcdonaldization.” What I mean is that the logic behind the design of actions for any purpose throughout the coaching sessions is rooted in the mcdonalized mode of thought.

The essential step in achieving the desired transformation is to detect the basic values of coachee. In general, at the beginning of the sessions, every coach wants the coachee to determine his/her basic values in life like honesty, beauty, or benevolence, which constitute the main justification of the process. Allegedly, no one becomes happy and satisfied with his life unless he finds and realizes his values in every aspect of life. Indeed, this kind of framing of an inner discovery renders all acts spiritually meaningful although even “the study of values” which is made in order to identify one’s values seems very standardized and convenient. That is to say it consists of a list of values and with the help of coach, coachee classifies the most important values of him like picking clothes. The values are essential part of us. They are everything that lightens our essence and that is taken care of by us. For example, it can be freedom or

97 passion or love for someone. Indeed, everyone takes care of similar values. But, the internal ranking of the values can be very different. It is a necessity to sort out this ranking. (Emir, 44, Life Coach)

Figure 4.1. The visual image of “study of values”6

The second thing to be done is embodiment of the values so that coachee has concrete and measurable aims by coinciding with the calculability dimension of Mcdonaldization pattern (Ritzer, 2002, p. 16). To illustrate, if a coachee has a value of beauty, then she should feel beautiful in order to find peace. At this stage, coachee must define her concept of beauty clearly upon which all the plans will be built. Supposing that this person is unhappy with her body and because of this, she feels

6 Reprinted from Is your life as balanced as you want it to be? by S.Bakowski, 2012, retrieved April 10, 2017 from https://sandiebakowski.com/2012/02/20/kicking-off-coaching-wheel-of-life-and-true- values/

98 ugly. With the interference of her coach, she creates an equation like beauty means being fit. In this way, her ideal is reduced to the amount of weight she wants to loss.

From this aspect, the method of “vision-boards” which is used to increase the clarity of the purpose of coachees is very striking. To do this exercise, the pictures of one’s dreams or likings are attached to a board, which the coachee can see often in her/his daily life. Coaches believe that the soul and mind of the coachee are focused totally on the apparent aims in this way and allegedly, a flow of energy is created which facilitates the course of events as well. Turning again to the last example, she can find a picture of a model or a weighing machine, which indicates her ideal body weight to put on her board. These types of techniques turn everything into calculable objects. There was an exercise like attaching the visual images of the things you like to do or making you feel good and also of your dreams to a board. For instance say, I like reading very much, then, I have an image of a book to put on the board. Then, because it is in front of you, you feel excited whenever you see it during the day. There is no need to make an extra effort to do something. In reality, it depends on the person. I looked at my vision board and then, I talked with my coach and suddenly I discovered that my favorite thing is to write and I started writing. (Neriman, 38, Housewife)

Figure 4.2. The visual image of a “vision board”7

Besides, along the interviews, both coachees and coaches mentioned about the logical side of coaching by emphasizing that the short and determined process of

7 Reprinted from 10 úžasných vision boardů. by V. Matula, 2015, retrieved April 10, 2017, from http://www.mykodex.cz/10-uzasnych-vision-boardu/

99 coaching is very beneficial, particularly in our fast world. Within this context, the best coach is defined as “who is able to finish the need for her/his guidance in a short time as far as possible.” Here, rather than caring about the depth or meaning of the process, the logic of “efficiency” is put forward. This is usually stated as being “solution oriented”, which is different from the tiring, long and uncertain process of therapy. The multifarious coaching methods comprise of the most convenient ways for the solution of the problems of coachees. It takes a lot of time to have concrete results by going to a psychologist. It does not immediately come to an end but people want to have something quickly. For instance, I want to see the results quickly. How much session I could take or how much money I could spend for this. However, coaching is short-term and more target-oriented. (Ecem, 24, new graduate, coachee)

How should I put it? Let’s assume that a client has a fear of lack of money or being needy. Then, in order this person to attract money into his/her life; we try to improve his/her conscious of abundance. We prepare a program in this way. In general, these programs last at least for three weeks. (Aslı, 35, Life Coach & Visual Communication)

For instance, say, someone asserts that she is very unhappy because her husband does not behave her as she request from him to do. But, she tells me what she did for him. I ask her to note everything she gives to others or to make a list of things that makes her happy. But, I don’t mean buying a purse from Yargıcı, rather, those special things which make her happy. For instance, I can be happy if I see a bird at my window after waking up in the morning. I give those kinds of homework like watching raining or sunset to very depressed people. This is because these people had already lost the glows in their lives when they came to me. I give these assignments in order to remind them their internal happiness. They come to next session like love bugs one week later. (Berna, 41, Life Coach)

In an attempt to find the most efficient for the coachees to reach their goals, a mutual agreement is made between the coaches and coachees and their coaches on the detailed plan of the transformation process. The agreement consists of the planning of weekly actions of coachee, the length of the time for sessions and the overall price. This depiction refers to a standardized, easy-to-use, and rationally planned way of a fast self-change like the fixed process of the preparation of a fast food. Everything is so much “controlled and predictable” so that the only duty of the client is to adapt themselves to this mechanic flow of events like a robotic ingredient.

100 For instance, a coachee comes to me and says that she wants to have a healthy life. She wants to walk for five day and go to plates for twice in a week. Then, the coach asked her how to take steps to reach her aim. Let’s say that the coachee has a sister who is going to a sport center and she has the telephone number of that place . Then, she plans out when to call to sport center in order to get an appointment from there. Then, in another session, we talk about whether she can take these steps or not. If she has some problems, we start to investigate the reasons behind them and also looking for the ways to solve them. This is how the process goes on in general. (Emir, 44, Life Coach)

Additionally, the relationship between a coach and a coachee which is shaped with a mutual agreement, implies also the transformation of life and relations into a “business enterprise” as signifies the entrance of economic significations into every sphere of life of the rational modern man with mechanical thinking (Mcgee, 2005, p.82-84). In this way, the supposedly unique and deep interaction along the sessions is framed as a consuming activity of coachee who is indeed the client of a spiritual package. After the first session, which is free, we make a contract. In this contract, the price and the amount of the sessions are written. By signing it, I confirm that I will adapt to the ethical values. In this pre-interview, I ask the coachee what she/he expects from sessions, which subjects he/she wants to focus on and what results she/he expects to get from this process. So, we decide on a schedule for the upcoming six weeks. In this way, the coachee is able to see his/her future. She/he has a certain thought pattern. It becomes clearer that if the person pays a price for the upcoming six weeks, she/he will have changed in the end. Of course, there is an article about the cancelation of the agreement just in case something negative happens. (Sevim, 38, Life Coach& Teacher)

According to Ritzer (2002, p.20), the rational logic behind the dimensions of mcdonaldization always creates some irrational outcomes as by-products. Even though this may sound very confounding, he perceives this situation as a usual part of the paradigm. The rational side of coaching also involves a fundamental irrationality in itself. By considering that the main claim of coaching is fulfillment of one’s genuine potential, it is fair to say that the whole process brings about a “project self” Bauman points out. This is a self, which is formed like a mathematical equation with its clearness, logicalness, accuracy, and also its programmed way of construction (Elliott, 2014, p.154). My definition of “spiritual mcdonaldization” demonstrates

101 exactly this kind of standard production of Mc self-images, alongside of a spiritual sauce for exploration of personal values.

4.6. The Transformation of Emotions: a textual and oral reconstruction of self Following Bourdieu, “emotions and feelings are part of the habitus, which is both structured and structuring” (Reed-Danahay, 2005, p. 102). Besides, previously mentioned class trajectory shaped by and inhered within the habitus, generates a kind of basic feeling of hope or desperation for future improvements (Bourdieu, 1984, p. 150 ; As cited in Reed-Danahay, 2005, p.109). In this road, our sample which is belonging to the new middle class habitus as told in the first section, internalize some emotions as extension of their socialization. Regarding this issue, Bauman (2011, p.72) underlines that middle classes experience a fundamental affective disorder due to the fact that on the one hand, they are always anxious about loss of their properties and also about their level of competence for uprising. On the other hand, they want to live the aspired free and joyful life style of upper classes which seems a very possible foresight for them, and in this manner, they enjoy their steps towards a perfect future waiting for them with an essential self-belief which require big efforts (Bauman, 2011, p. 72-74). Bauman describes this ambivalent situation as “the infinite tension between security and freedom” (Bauman, 2011, p. 74).

As should be obvious from the above, this is the reflection of the conflict between the inherited and acquired habitus. So, as people who fail to reach their ideal identity prototypes in line with their dispositions, coachees generally experience feelings of insecurity, insignificance, unrest or a lack of satisfaction in their lives at the outset. Exactly at this point, life coaches step in and they try to transform these seemingly more negative feelings into positive ones such as a sense of trust, self-satisfaction, self-assurance and tranquility.

This emotional transition is seen as necessary to create a self-realized person who can manage his life, based on the balance between different spheres of life. As the Affect control theory puts forward, people always seek to form a harmony between their personal identity qualifications and the affective meanings uncovered in the

102 daily interactions as socially founded characterisations for emotional states (Robinson, Smith-Lovin & Wisecup, 2006, p. 180-81-82). To put it in another way, in order the coachees to engage in certain actions and to change their style of relations and life visions, the life coaches are obliged to create appropriate emotions for them. Here, undoubtedly, coaches must provide the coachees with a certain emotional language which includes certain affective significations as part of a psychologic knowledge.

As Foucault (1980, p. 69)asserts, “knowledge functions as a form of power”. This means that power relations transform people into subjects by producing and expanding certain norms which define and classify the “experiences” of these subjects (Foucault, 2014, p.19) In this way, power ascribes some identities to every individual which are interiorised by them as substantive qualities (Foucault, 2014, p.20). Actually, these qualities are created and imposed on people by existing disciplining mechanisms. Although as part of his analysis, Foucault mostly focuses on the production of psychiatric knowledge, psychology has also shaped the perceptions of individuals who are defined as without any serious psychologic disorder for a long time (Rimke, 2000, p. 63). Coaching rhetoric can be seen as an extension of this process.

Indeed, coaches are learned to describe, evaluate, form, demolish and detect their emotional situations as part of the current emotional culture (Rose,1999, p. vii; Gordon, 1990, p. 146). That is to say that every period of time endengers its unique “vocabularies and norms in terms of appraising and expressing emotions” (McCharty, 1989, p. 59 ; Gordon, 1990, p. 146). Within this framework, the allegedly founded emotions or emotional descriptions along the coaching sessions like gratification, relief, enjoyment, self-realince or self-fulfillment derives from the knowledge of psychology which has formed feelings in line with the regulations of neoliberal system.

Actually, this order has functioned by removing people from the values such as moderation and altruism through certain latent mechanisms (Rimke, 2000, p.71).

103 Indeed, the supposed relation between self and feelings is one of those mechanisms. People are encouraged to do their jobs, to get married or go on a beautiful holiday in order to claim that they possess the popular emotions of happiness, content and tranquility and for this reason, they are superior to others (Rose, 1999, p. 257). The production of truth about these kind of emotions is made essentially via converting them into concrete objects to be reached through some practices. In this way, the life mission of individuals become to “obssesively” take care of them selves. This is because they have to reinvent their emotional situation at any moment. This circumstance demonstrates the transformation of emotions which are generally regarded as most natural and inherent parts of the soul into a vehicle to govern individuals. The depressive period that I mentioned before is very important to me. I don’t say I got ruined or I’m wiped out about every experience I have anymore. Okay, we can be upset but there is nothing after it. It is very possible to get in trouble. But, that is okay. I feel myself more human, more self-confident, and great, as a citizen of world. (Neriman, 38, Housewife)

As long as my fear of death declines, I started to come across with guys who wants to have more serious relations. I realized why I was ignored and why I like powerful man. This is due to the profile of my father. It is always about the awareness. With the rise of the awareness, you change yourself and you reach a higher level of energy. In this way, you go closer to your wishes. (İrem, 26, working in a business intelligence company)

We find together the root fears, and we forgive people and get rid of the things coming from outside. I find the people who are my reflections and then I forgive them. (İrem, 26, working in a business intelligence company)

My aim is to love more, to become more happy and make people around me more happy. Maybe, when my energy rised up, the energy of the country would change as well. For instance, you may think that “How can I write this dissertation, alas!”. Why? You will write an awesome dissertation. See, you are already making amazing conversations. This is all about perspective. (Neriman, 38, Housewife)

In these quotes, we can see the construction of a specific self-technology more closely. Especially the usage of some terms for reinforcement is very remarkable. For example, the expressions like “really” wanting to be happy, “to love more”, “to become more human” or “the rise of awareness and energy”, create a sort of infinite

104 scale particularly in terms of emotions by deifying their existence and meaning. Also, the depictions such as “fear of death”, “root fears” or “forgiving self-reflections” indicate a mystic relation with the own self. That is to say that the acquirement of specific types of denotation and attributions for one’s own feelings or sensations, provides with an inexplicable but a believed space to contact with the essential self in spiritual terms. This type of language and perspective makes the self an unique and divine entity.

The said emotional change and by implication self-change is often made through some writing methods in the process. This refers to that by preparing schedules, writing some ideas about your perception of self or life, and constituting minus and plus tables regarding any issue, indeed, a textual self-construction is made by coachee in an attempt to create new feelings (As cited in Mcgee, 2005, p. 156). Simply put, majority of these methods represent the roads to question oneself and own life vision by reorganizing the memories within the frame of challenging inquiries. This kind of relation with self relies on the belief that through classifying and labeling the past, which is made in order to discover the unsettling arguments or faiths, and to imagine/design a potential future, the new self can be theoretically and practically formed.

Following Foucault, at an age provoking confession with the hegemony of wording above experience, this type of creation of self-knowledge is essentially the way of becoming an “individual” (Rimke, 2000, p. 70 ; Gürbilek, 2011, p.45). This means that in accordance with the post-modern regime of significations, the experience does not paves the way for a narration but rather, the imaginative statements create itself the frame of experience (Featherstone, 2013, p. 128). The following examples demonstrate properly the triumph of the “naming” concerning self-construction with the help of “affirmative expressions.”. The exercise of questioning beliefs: you should ask yourself some questions and then write the answers down. “What do I want to achieve in my life but I can’t ?”, “I probably have a negative belief about the aims I can’t reach, then, what is this?”, “My negative belief is …….”, “What this belief provides me with?”, “When did I acquire this belief for the first time?”, “How do I know

105 that this belief is true?”, “What I have lost by relying on this belief?”, “What would I believe if I didn’t have this belief?” (So, what would be my positive belief?), “How would I feel if I had a different belief?” and “What type of person I would be if I had a positive belief?” Then you should write your new positive belief down on a paper and carry this paper with you for 21 days saying that “I believe …… now. I believe more in this with each passing day and I have gotten the positive results. Thank you for this” (Bıyıklıoğlu, 2013, p. 134-37)

The exercise of self-respect: Again, you should ask yourself some questions and then write the answers down. “Whether or not I feel valued?”, “Why do I value myself?”, “What are the three reasons for you to feel valued?”, “What are the three behaviors which prove your self-respect.” Lastly, you need an affirmative sentence saying, “I am a precious piece of the universe, I love myself and I am grateful for my existence” (Bıyıklıoğlu, 2013, p. 138-39)

These exercises have potentiality of degrading everything into the planning of a chart. So, this is the point where people, their personalities or emotions are transformed into the written commodities. Even in the subject of love affairs, it can be demanded from coachee to write his wanted or unwanted features of a potential lover. Then, in a session, the chart is discussed and a decision is made about what type of person can be appropriate to have a happy relationship or whether the present relation should be called off or given one more chance. This condition is the reflection of the domination of signs over the concrete use value of the objects (Elliott, 2014, p.150). In other words, supposed attributions or criterions seem more important than lusty interaction between two people. This can be seen also as the reflection of What Giddens (2014, p.120-21) called “pure relations” which hinges only on the level of satisfaction the both of the side achieve through their sharing. I say to a coachee that let’s decide what type of relationship s/he desires to have with a partner. For instance, the coachee asserts that communication is important for him/her or s/he wants romanticism. It doesn’t matter these are right or wrong. All right, we write down twenty different features of his/her potential partner. But, in some cases, his/her current partner hasn’t any of these characteristics. Then, we question why s/he still sustains this relation? For instance, the coachee says that s/he loves her/his partner. But, it seems that his/her partner is not really the person s/he likes to be with. Then, first we must clarify this situation. (Berna, 41, Life Coach)

106 4.7. The (Re) Construction of Selves of Life Coaches As mentioned previously, the coaches attempted to transform their habitus as a kind of revolt against the routinized and morally regulated daily life. That is to say that, explicitly, they acted in contrast to their positions in the existing social order. Indeed many people may admire their lives because most of them have high-level jobs, which make good money (like management), some of them also have a seemingly happy family, and they are usually approved as rational and cultured people in the society. However, their life started to become unbearable for them and with a Goffmanian expression; they suddenly came off the stage at their own request.

This is a clear fact that the neo-liberal business world is very influential on this situation of many life coaches in the way that its chaotic nature inhibits them from living a peaceful, calm, and free life. In this way, they lost their faces deliberately by ruining their socially affirmed images in order to reach their above-cited westernized ideals. To illustrate, Orkun who had a very good resume and was very successful in his work of management, felt very unhappy at one point in his life especially due to his stressful job and started to question his life style. In this way, he decided to become a life coach no matter what social labels he has or what his environment expect from him. Oneday I buzz my hair all off and my boss really got mad at me. I was annoyed by this anger because I didn’t violate the dress code of the firm. Then, what happened? I asked myself what disturbed me here. This is the intervention to my freedom. … So, as long as the person clarifies what s/he wants or not, there will be no problem. As I said before, I didn’t take the road to become a coach in the end, but rather, I discovered my wishes/expectations about my career and the life coaching complied with these standards. If carpentry had met my expectations, then, I would have been a carpenter. I didn’t care about the fact that I was graduated from a famous university. (Orkun, 41, Life Coach)

However, even though on the one hand, they withstood their usual social positions and its accompanying requests and stereotypes and they obviously entered into a process of desocialization, on the other hand, after they started to work as coaches, they are obliged to show a new performance in search of a new position in the social stage. Despite the fact that most of the coaches rejected along the interviews that they were masters or advisors (akıl hocası) for their coachees, they need a very well

107 prepared role management as to be accepted as people with big awareness. Because, although coaching is a new occupation in Turkey which is frequently underestimated by a lot of people, a considerable number of people who are generally more inclined to self-help literature have already big expectations of them. These expectations usually derive from the way life coaches are represented in the books or on the social media. Their writings include always an attitude of wisdom and they have big claims on coaching practice. Indeed, by presenting a perfect and an unproblematic life, which they have usually after years of struggle, life coaches must demonstrate the possibility of changing in order to be able to touch the potential clients. I had struggled for becoming someone else throughout the thirty years of my life. I walked around the harbors, which were not mine for years. First, I studied in the department of industrial engineering and then I got a master degree in the business area. Then, I become a banker. But, as long as the digit of numbers raised, also the resistance from deep inside me raised. Then, I resigned myself to my questionings and I am here right now as a life coach. (Deniz, 2005 ,p. 12)

There was something going wrong in my life. I couldn’t even get closer to place of my dreams. Everything was out of my control. Then, I realized that whenever I was afraid of something, I would go through it, and so, my awakening has started. (Gardiyanoğlu, 2016, p. 11)

Within such a context, the life coaches are expected to perform the role of an enlightened coach at every minute in their lives like in sessions, which includes both of their daily lives and their online self-presentations. The condition like having a low level of energy, experiencing big disappointments, or being in an anxious mood for a certain period of time, can damage their mystic authority at every turn. For this reason, they appeal to certain technics to protect their images.

First and foremost, they must dramatize their effects on the lives of their coachees in order to put forward the prestige and function of their occupation. To do this, they often try to underscore their practices which come from their unique “specialization”. And although they persistently assert that the responsibility is belong to the coachee who are the basic director of their process of change, it is a necessity for them to display their involvements into the process as a kind of secret sovereign in order to be able to be approved.

108 I teach people to accept their fears. There is always a desire to get rid of something, or people keep saying that ‘’save me!’’. This is not possible. You are already complete with your fears. I can’t divide you but you can accept this situation. In this way, the coachee directly feel relaxed. (Sevim, 38, Life Coach &Teacher)

We should make you notice whether you really want something or not by making you speak. It is made with the questions that bother the coachee. If the coachee is annoyed with these questions, then, coach has already found the point and s/he should move forward in this direction. (Zehra, 52, Housewife & Life Coach)

I was making collective meditation sessions until one year ago. In general, they were lasting for four to six weeks, as each of them took four hours. I gave them many homeworks that led clients to face themselves. So, the people could realize the troubles they preferred to run away from. Also, some people came to sessions with swollen eyes from crying. This is not resemble to convey theoretical information to people. This is a serious experience, not a funny one. (Orkun, 41, Life Coach)

They also make an effort to show idealized performances as life coaches by using diversified paradigms or principles, which are related to various meta-narrations or mentalities. On the one hand, in an attempt to transform coaching to a professionalized occupation, they use of commonly-held and concrete knowledges, and so, they frame their selves like scientists. This is usually made through making references to scientific researches and the available results of them by manifesting the perfect technicality of their jobs. In this way, they sometimes use the word of “knowing” rather than “believing,” to represent their indubitable position. Indeed, as a branch of science, quantum physics proved that all existence is an energy, not a material. Because you see this as a table, this is a table. If you think that this is not a table then, it is not. The quantum physics is equal to the physics of probabilities. The smallest piece of the atom is quant. Indeed, the quant is light. This means that all of us are lights. Then, everything is possible. I can be here and there at the same time. So, quantum physics tells that everything is possible and you can do whatever you want to. This is all about ideas. What you think, you become. (Berna, 41, Life Coach)

On the other side, they are also obliged to represent themselves as free people who do not fixate on a certain perspective, in line with the conventions of a post-modern world. In other words, their state of fully realized personhood necessitates being insensitive to commitment to any kind of dogmatic belief system. In this road, they

109 are able to create the image of a coach who can address the concerns of people with different world-views. I have never said that you should apply for that kind of a job or you should wear this type of clothes. There is no guidance or intervention in the sessions. There is no right or wrong. Since there are eight billion people in the world, there are also eight billion types of rights. (Berna, 41,Life Coach)

It does not matter whether you call it universe or God. There are certain standards to live a good quality of life if you want to improve the quality of your life. I am trying to say this. (Orkun, 41, Life Coach)

About this issue, there was a big discrepancy throughout the interviews between the coaches and coachees. While in general the coaches idealized their roles in the way that they do not intervene in any decisions of their coachees and they are only facilitators of the change of coachees or fellow travelers in their journey to find themselves, the coachees talked implicitly about their pleasures of taking instruction from their coaches who do not resemble to psychologists in this respect. All the more amazing, most of the coaches sometimes mentioned about the orientations given by them to their clients, probably unwittingly. To illustrate, when a coach was talking about her technics, she said that if a person have a lack of self-confidence and this situation prevents him/her from giving a speech in front of a crowd, then a schedule is prepared. In this direction, this person makes a speech in front of two people in the first place as a duty and then other week, the number of people rises to four or five and this is going on like that. The problem can be completely solved in this way according to her. Again, in another case, the coach discovered that the life of his coachee was a mess because she had big fears about people’s judgments and then, he gave a homework to her, that is, to say clearly her arguments to people around her for a week and then to look at what would happen.

At this point, home works or assignments are not classified as interventions by life coaches to the lives of their coachees. But, indeed, frequently, the coaches make charts about what their coachee should to do to resolve their problems, as can be seen from the above mentioned examples. This seems like a well-defined package, which is functional in every respect. However, if the coaches admitted this and they

110 exhibited this kind of an image, a big trouble could show up related to their encouraged mentality. Because they acquire a distinct position among the service sector jobs, especially which aim to improve the emotional health of people, thanks to their well-recognized image based on the fact that in the process of coaching, the coachees manage all of their moves and create their changes by themselves.

This circumstance provides with advantages for them, because the world of psychology or psychiatry, almost all the time, define the person as a patient to be cured and in this way, an indestructible hierarchy is established. Here, the leading actor is the healer person who have the right to decide the style of diagnosis and treatment with his/her specialized knowledge. But, the coachees who are generally in a bad condition while they are searching for a way to get rid of their troubles, aren’t disposed to dig out their past and struggle for analyzing their experiences for a undetermined period of time by resigning their selves to an expert. This is because within present “regime of truth”, psychological perspective is seen as a form of objectification of “patients”, whereas coaching ostensibly promises a “voyage of discovery” by rendering a person an independent master of his/her life. What do psychologists do? They give some standard advices to everyone like going to sport or cinema. It is a necessity to have a personal doctor. Life coaches can do this. (Serkan, 36, Mechanical Engineer, Coachee)

I went to a psychiatrist. But, it didn’t make me feel good. He said to me that I would became cancer due to my troubles. So, my psychology got worse. (Pelin, 31, Visual Communication, Coachee)

Psychologists rely on theoretical information. You cannot tell them everything. (Ayça, 34, Higher Education, Coachee)

The life coaches also idealize their selves by appealing to the standard morality of the society, which confirms altruism. This situation arise particularly while they are talking about their approach towards their occupation. The stories usually hide the personal interests of them whereas they perform the role of helpful and humanist people whose most important concern is the well-being of humanity. I cannot handle seeing people unhappy. I see many unhappy people. When we are all negative, it becomes inevitable for the world to destroy. This is because there is an energy in the world which cannot be felt according to

111 scientists. But, if there is a good energy, all good things become real. I preferred this occupation to expand this perspective professionally. (Zehra, 52, Life Coach)

I realize that even if we worked hard as teachers, we couldn’t provide enough benefits to adolescents, especially, if they were in the preparation process for the exams. Then, I felt the need of examining the background of the issue. In this way, the coaching was started. Many university students are dissatisfied with their departments. This situation reveals unhappy doctors or engineers. Then, they look for different areas. People become unhappy since they prefer their departments according to their exam results or they can’t take the risk of changing their departments. Then, they can’t decide about their futures because their education is not proper to do that and it is supposed to go deeper, even go back to the time of secondary school. This is the point where coaching functions. If I am interested in coaching the students at secondary school instead of making coaching to the unhappy people with a certain career at the age of forty, then, these children will move on their lives by realizing their potentials and they will become happy and successful adults in the future. (Sevim, 38, Life Coach & Teacher)

I should also underline the fact that the occupation of coaching does not necessitate a legitimized and well-defined education process for now (George, 2013, p. 182). For this reason, in general, coaches are obliged to display their professionalism by means of their expressions, right detections and their seemingly sophisticated manners, rather than relying on some certificated documents, which indicate the level of expertness. This impression management is usually made through mystification of their perception of world or their spiritual informations. In one interview, while talking about the law of attraction, I was starting to mention about some of my experiences that seemed related to this issue and the coach with a big self-reliance said to me: It should be underlined that these are like first class information. You are saying that these issues are weird for you but they are really nothing. These are very basic information. This is not about believing because this is how the system works. Maybe you can find these expressions very theoretical but if you start to insert them in your life, then, you are able to understand what I want to say. (Orkun, 41, Life Coach)

Here, the coach constructs a unique and farfetched castle for his self and his occupation. He directly send the players off the game who seem skeptical and uninterested to the spiritual world by positioning them as the inferior people whose

112 capacity is narrow to comprehend the whole issue. In this way, while he acquires a symbolic power for himself, at the same time, he promises a special symbolic power for the coachees too. Maybe, this is the most crucial way of differentiation from others for coaches as the new middle class members.

Moreover, the coaches try to show their ability to detect the characters of people quickly and correctly as well, to exhibit themselves as accomplished people in their specific field. To put it another way, in order to create big transformations in a person’s life in a short period of time, the coaches should recognize the personal features and problems of coachees like a pragmatic fortune-teller. When I ask about how he understood so quickly the hidden reasons behind the troubles of his clients, a coach responded to me with a very relaxed mood as follows: For example, a football commentator can tell you the score of a match after he watches the first five minutes of it. You have spent your life by doing this job. You look at the team formation, who plays at the positions of centre- forward or centre-back and then you can tell everything. By looking at what a person says or not, where s/he puts his hand and how s/he talks, you can analyze her/him within seconds. If you intend to see people or listen to them, they say so much to you. (Orkun, 41, Life Coach)

Here, the coach defines his occupation as having the capacity for the fast recognition of the people in a clear way. But, this is not like a doctor who diagnoses the diseases of patients, because the medicine knowledge is learned in the schools through books and practices while the essence of coaching relies on an intuitional and unconditioned sensation of coaches which improve with experience in time.

4.8. The Dynamics of Interaction between Coaches and Coachees The sessions throughout the coaching process, which is based on the interaction between coaches and coachees, can be seen as weekly encounters (called also focused gatherings). Although it can not be talked about a strictly regulated and socially appropriated kind of interaction ritual, both of the coaches and coachees continue to be persons with certain social status who ask for respect by acting without totally breaking off the social rules (As cited in Lemert & Branaman, 197, p.Ixviii). So, both of them are exactly aware of the fact that their attitudes and

113 conducts are observed by another human being, and mutual assessments are made. In this context, coaching sessions can be seen as an unity of performances at the front stage. This means that while coachee is an audience for the life coach who tries to represent a coherent image as an expert, also coach is an audience for coachee who wants to exhibit a “developing” identity in the process. If I had established a consulting company, I would have accepted everybody as a client. But, you must ask yourself. Coaching refers to give up on me. If you accept everyone, then a woman who has been raped can come to you. Can you behave that girl as a robot? Or let’s think of a rapist man who come to you. I don’t want such things. This is because I know myself. If there was an injustice, I may not handle this and I felt like that I betray to my job. Because of this, I don’t accept everyone. (Zehra, 52, Life Coach)

For instance, my coach and I took same music course and I did not like our teacher at all. The teacher did not like me either. Just because my coach was there, I tolerated him. After the coach had left the course, I got angrier. Then, I couldn’t resist and I did not give the concert. (Serkan, 36, Mechanical Engineer)

In other respects, the coaches motivate and instruct their coachees on gaining new perspectives, and acting in a different way in order to save their faces in their daily lives. This is because the coachee accepts the fact that s/he needs a coach to recognize herself/himself really while hiring a coach, her/his face is almost completely lost in the first place. For that matter, the basic aim of all coaching methods is to make coachees retrieve a solid face. To illustrate, Serkan started to withstand the interventions of his father after the sessions and so, as a thirty six year old, engineer man, maybe for the first time in his life, he has showed self-control. In another case, Neriman rediscovered herself and decided to become a writer after a long-term depression by changing her attitude and glance towards her sick child. Again, Ecem began to see herself beautiful and happy by understanding that it is very wrong to think that because she broke up with her fiancée, she would stay alone forever.

In the light of these situations, I argue that the coaching sessions are designed like a “middle stage” in which the preparation for the outer life is made whereas also the the written or unwritten rules of self-representation restricts the specific interaction

114 between coach and coachee. In other words, along the process, there are no sharp rules to exhibit a conventionalized performance like in the front stage, while also there is no emancipation from the imposed responsibilities. Here, as a semi-back stage, coaching sessions function as saver and rebuilder of faces of coachees in contrast to coaching sessions as a semi-front stage where coachees lose their faces consciously by the help of the coach. To put it differently, on the one hand, coaches bolster the self-confidence of their coachees and direct them in both a protective and promotive manner in order them to save and rebuild their faces. On the other hand, they perpetually question the sayings of coachees and annoy them with their judgments or their high words to ruin their fixed ideas. In fact, most of them intimidate and challenge the coachees along the process. Even, one coach said to me that: Coachees sometimes pretend that they really want to change but, now, we can easily detect these kind of clients. So, it doesn’t take a long time to recognize them. In the second or third session, I can understand whether the coachee really wants to change or not. In the second session at the latest, I tell them that they don’t want to change. After I said this to them, they immediately claim that I misunderstood them etc. But, I can’t misunderstand anybody. I have bought table for eight years. I can tell which tree is solid or feeble, whether it is chipboard or angled, and which one has the best quality. I know these kind of issues. This is my job. How can I misunderstand? (Orkun, 41, Life Coach)

This is obviously a counter act to the socially ordered relations. This is because the coaches penetrate into the territory of the other which is a protected zone under normal conditions (As cited in Lemert & Branaman, 1997, p. 116). So, while trying to save the faces of coachees in their routinized daily life through certain tactics, at the same time, in the sessions, it is an obligation for coachees to lose their faces to get ahead. In a nutshell, the face-work of coaches is fundamentally based on a two-phase process, in which first, coachees lose their faces in the sessions and then regain their faces after sessions. Here, homeworks given by coaches or their techniques should be able to touch the lifes of coachees in a certain way. Only in this road, the coachee can be convinced to the fact that her/his self comes to light through the unique interaction with the coach.

115 From this aspect, when we look at the case of Pelin, after the session in which her coach had tried to make her accept the possibility of loneliness, she started to feel that her resistance was broken, and “miraculously”, several man ask her for a date in a few hours. As an another example, Ayça who resisted to move from her house and withstood any kind of changes in her life, decided to move to another house by instruction of her coach and then, with her expression; “a miracle happened” and she started to date with the guy who settled into her old house. In this sense, a sort of spiritual ritual is created. Here, “the object of ultimate value” upon which the ritual is build can be defined as the energy generated in the sessions (As cited in Lemert & Branaman, 1997, p. 114). This circumstance corresponds to the saying of a coach; “Indeed, the power of coaching does not lie behind the coach or coachee, but the process.”

Within this context, the coachees still can not be seen as passive persons who obey everything without questioning. On the one hand, they try to evaluate the competence of coaching methods, on the other hand they reject some demands or imputation of coaches by engaging in a personal struggle for saving their faces. In this road, they request some deference for themselves by presenting themselves as people with “well- demeaned” characters who have control over their lives and who have specific ideas on their experiences. (Goffman, 1967, p. 77). Previously, I thought about nothing I was grateful for. Sometimes, my coach asked me to write the things I am grateful for, while we were studying the subject of abundance but I could not write anything. This is because I have financial problems at that time. I wrote two items but then, I think that I had to pay my rent and although I had a job, I couldn’t receive any money. I have difficulty in adapting this persptective. (Pelin, 31, Graphic Designer)

My coach gave me home works like repeating affirmations or writing assignments. I guess I didn’t do them. I didn’t want to face with some events. I didn’t want to imagine. This is because in that period, I decided not to imagine anything in order not to worry although I am indeed a person who often imagine. I thought that I should let my life flow. (Ecem, 24, new graduate)

I do not believe name analysis or astrology. I do not like them. It reminds me of the persons who are believed to be God’s beloved and who pray for someone and give him/her an amulet in order their wishes to come true. It

116 seems to me superstitious. Actually, mystic or religious things reduce my motivation. (Serkan, 36, Mechanical Engineer)

The particularity of the mentioned interaction is also related to the destruction of the professional boundaries between the coach and the client. This is because, here, we come across a motivation service on a daily basis, which conflicts with the principles of the discipline of psychology. When you feel very bad about something or when you don’t know exactly how to make a certain assignment, and even when you cannot decide whether your partner is a good choice or not, there is one person to ask for advice; your coach. The coachee and her/his coach think together over her/his troubles and they try to solve these such that, her/his coach turns into a “shadow- self.” So, coaches sometimes scream at their coachees when they cannot succeed to face some realities by themselves or bring them to reason when their plans happen to fail, which eventually cause them to fall apart. This self becomes your “sunshine”, your “advisor”, your “steppingstone” and your “healer.”

Within this scope, a kind of minimized social order is created which has idiosyncratic dynamics. This order is operated through the mutual role management of coaches and coachees in diverse ways. At this point, having looked at the relation of Ayça with her coach, a complicated kind of picture reveals. On the hand, she instrumentalizes her coach such that she wants her coach to meet with his boyfriend who represents the profile of a husband with a happy marriage, on the other hand, while selecting the topic of her thesis, she accepted her coach’s advice by positioning him as her teacher. Again, by consulting with her coach on even her choice of car brand, she gives him an authority, which seemingly gives him the right to comment on almost everything in her life. But, at the same time while mentioning about her fears, she mention about her coach’s fear of the bugs with an attempt to scale him down to her level.

A similar type of circumstance revealed also very strikingly throughout the interviews between the coaches and me. In many interviews, the coaches want me to think of, or dream, or question something related to my life and consciously or unconsciously,

117 a relationship of coachee and coach was formed between us too. I experienced this situation very explicitly in my second interview with a male coach. As soon as I sat down the table for the interview, he started to question me about my thesis like a coachee. Persistently, he asked about the title of my thesis and he did not satisfied with my answers at all. I was kind of losing my face as a researcher. Then, the interview began but, for many questions, he said to me that some experiences are very special and it is not possible to tell them. He scolded me indirectly by implying that my questions are very categorized, which have not qualification to comprehend his spiritual narration. In this way, he tried to reject the role of me as an interrogator who observed and evaluated him and so, this can be seen as an act to wipe out the hierarchical order.

In the end of the interview, he started to ask whether I figured out how I could use his speech in my thesis while trying to play the role of interrogator for this time. After I had said that maybe after I made the transcription, I will draw some conclusions from this interview, a session of showdown commenced. He made many detections of me. Supposedly, I rejected to enter into business life and to grow up, I did not want to complete my thesis, and I had a hard time saying no to other people. By giving examples from his career and master, he claimed that I have never wanted to really find my dream job or write my thesis.

I was astonished literally. On the one hand, I did not want to seem a person who is not open to criticism and also, I was grateful for him because he devoted his time for me, but on the other hand I got angry due to his instantaneous inferences about me. Are these issues really that kind of easy? He definitely tries to show me his competence and with his own expressions “it cannot be described but only experienced” kind of situations in the sessions. This was his way of marketing obviously.

So, this whole interaction is like a character contest which is based on a competition for being the person who determine the prevailing identification of the own self and the other (As cited in Lemert & Branaman, 1997, p.Ixxii). Here, it can be interpreted

118 that the basic move of the coaches is to drive the coachees into corner. By way of this, they aim to block the way for questioning of their superior position in the hierarchical relation between a coach and a coachee . Thus, they are able to construct a world of meanings in which they are the one with the authority to define the situations in the way they want the coachees to percept. This simply means that the coaches establish a closed and fictional world for the coachees by imposing them a mystical perspective.

119

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION

Within the frame of my thesis, I analyzed new middle class habitus to which life coaches and coachees belong to and its demand for the reconstruction of their self by means of coaching practice. In daily life conversations, on social media or on television programs, it seems that everybody has embraced the goal of attaining one’s dream life and of discovering one’s own essential self. My main motivation in selecting this topic for my thesis study was to better understand how this situation came to be. Even as I am forming these sentences, my words are emanating from a certain pattern of sense making. This means that terms like “awareness”, “dream life”, “discovery of self” or “essence of being” all signify a new manner of connecting with our selves that determines our perceptions and comprehensions about life. Although the emergence of this way of thinking and the language that accompanies it dates back to very old times, its broad penetration of our semantic world -according to which we interpret our actions and events happening around us-, has only taken place in our age. In this sense, life coaches are pioneers and marketers of the phenomenon of “recreation of life” with their recipes concerning an individualized self-change process.

Considering these crucial developments, which have everyone under their spells, I decided to examine coaching practice for the opportunity it offered to transparently observe the transfer of this world of thought from life coaches to coachees. Here, I must underline that even though the mentioned self-development rhetoric is prevalent in society; coaching process is what integrates it into people’s lives in a systematic way. In other words, the peculiar thing about coaching is its reconstruction of the self-perceptions and mindsets of coachees through seminal methods that become intertwined with the selves of coachees in a short span of time. In essence, then, my goal was to track the transformation of a self-discovery perspective into a life mission in practice.

120 To investigate this issue, I conducted interviews with coaches and coachees and also I carried out document analysis of the books and web sites of life coaches. At the beginning of my study, I expected to meet with people coming from very upper classes who were interested in spirituality and used coaching practice only for improving in spiritual terms as a sign of distinctiveness. This assumption proved inaccurate, and based largely on negative and critical media coverage. Instead, according to the findings of my qualitative research, coaching practice is instrumentalized by members of new middle class as a way of eliminating their inherited habitus, which precludes the realization of their ideals, rooted in their educational background. This habitual conflict, which was explained in detail above, was very surprising for me. When looking from outside, coaching practice may be seen only as a part of a class habitus but I reached the conclusion that, it is actually the reflection of a class struggle.

This class habitus reveals itself on the one hand through its reproduction strategies in the fields of education and gender, and on the other hand through the existence of “omnivore taste” as an all-inclusive taste without any sharp differentiation between various practices or products. While coachees try to suppress their inclinations coming from their family environments by hiring a life coach, life coaches exhibit their selves as wise people who overcame their problems. However, my study indicates that they, like coachees, still continue to display the conflict between their inherited and acquired habitus. Even though coaching practice is viewed by both parties as a means of revealing one’s inner self by negating the social pressures on people, I argue that this is only a creation of a new doxa and panopticon based on an exaggeration of the self-enclosed life style.

Considering coaching techniques which are used in coaching sessions as a means towards self-transformation, I showed that a new biographic narration resting upon self-assurance is formed by breaking the connections between past and present. In this respect, although my preliminary argument about this issue is the existence of a superficial and temporary consumption of certain precepts or beliefs, I came across a holistic approach for inventing a new identity for coachees through a specific

121 regime of truth. Especially through certain spiritual and rational methods, coachees try to reach their internalized ideal personality discourses rather than to realize their potentials. In this way, I claimed that their process of change is built upon a fast and pre-designed action plan called “spiritual mcdonaldization.” As a self-management mechanism which has encouraged by existing system, coachees also obtained an emotional language, that brings about a new relation with the self especially through writing practices. This whole process is based located upon the specific interaction between life coaches and coachees in contrast to my first impressions concerning this condition –namely, that, this was a didactic and one-way instruction process-. My research showed that the (new) self-constructions is indeed made via narrative performances in this interactional setting.

This thesis had also some limitations. Due to especially financial and ethical problems, I could not attend any programs for coaching education. In a related way, because I was not interested in coaching as an occupation on the road to professionalization and also because I did not have enough time for expanding my fieldwork, I did not examine any coach education centers. These conditions mean that I was only able to partially investigate the perspectives and manner of approaching the issues used during the sessions by life coaches. Also, by contacting the candidate life coaches at the centers, I could observe the decision-making process about becoming a coach in a clearer way.

I limited my fieldwork to the context of Istanbul in order to restrict the scope of the study in a more specific way. This situation could cause to prevent this thesis from being completely comprehensive and representative. In this manner, the delineation of a new middle class habitus did not involve contingent different stories pertaining to other localities.

Although I could easily communicate with the life coaches via e-mails or telephones, I had a hard time finding coachees to interview. This condition happened because of two main reasons. On the one hand, a lot of coaches were unwilling to mediate between me and their clients in terms of arranging meetings. On the other hand,

122 there are not so many people in my social environment who took coaching sessions. However, the coachees I found through the mediation of life coaches or my social network can be regarded as to a certain degree biased, because some of them did not want to discredit coaches with whom they were still in touch or some of them recognized me previously and could not see me probably as a researcher.

As said in the above sections, the interaction between coaches and coachees during the sessions is of great importance. However, in compliance with ethical rules suggesting that the sessions are based on the private relation between coach and coachee, I did not attend any coaching sessions. For this reason, I was forced to examine the process primarily by referring to the narrations in the interviews. Because I had not any opportunity to observe the process directly, my analysis was built upon a double interpretation of the comments in interviews.

Again, because of a lack of time, while investigating the new middle class habitus, I consulted only the narrations of respondents about their families or educational backgrounds. Meeting with their parents or friends to confirm or elaborate these narrations would have improved my data. Furthermore, this could have given me the opportunity to compare divergent narrations about the same events.

In order to overcome the trouble deriving from the lack of investigation of coaching centers, I mainly benefited from the books of coaches, which reflect their thinking style of in detail. Concerning the other mentioned issues, I tried to get information about the transition period of coaches regarding their change of occupation or the style of interaction they adopted in sessions by asking critical questions to both coaches and coachees during the interviews. To cancel out the impact of probable a priori arguments or answers in these interviews, I asked some respondents questions regarding fundamental issues in several different ways. This disclosed discrepancies between the opinions that they had in their minds and those expressed in their words. Also, in order to eliminate the possible negative effects of knowing the interviewee before, I strived for constructing a frame of research based on the specific relation between the researcher and the respondent during interviews.

123 Additionally, concerning the depiction of the class habitus, I preferred to focus on the personal narration of events or tastes which is useful in terms of seeing the mental construction of respondents regarding the social setting surrounding them. Here, by drawing on also other studies made about this class habitus, I tried to complete the picture without doing many more interviews.

Overall, this study was not able to depict the self-construction process regarding coaching practice in connection with the structuring of a new middle class habitus in an exact way. In future, a well-rounded research can be made by negotiating with the coaching centers and coach trainers. This kind of study could put forward the mentality of coaching in a deeper way. Also, a cross-culture study should be made in the form of qualitative research with life coaches and coachees from diverse countries, in order to examine the differences concerning localized operation and perceptions of coaching. What is more, in an attempt to make a more objective study, the interviews particularly with the coachees should be done before and after they engage in the coaching process or even at regular intervals over the course of the coaching process. This will clarify the long-term impacts of coaching and help to elucidate. In this way, the agency of coaching practice in terms of altering people’ minds and behavioral styles will be comprehended more obviously as well. Besides, it would also be wortwhile to survey the interactive relation between discipline of psychology and coaching. This sort of an inquiry could provide us with the chance to place the position of the life coaches in the personalized service field.

To sum up, my thesis has presented the new dynamics in the new middle class habitus of Istanbul, by tracking the formation of the need for coaching and also its concomitant impact concerning the construction of a new regime of truth. Because the ever-evolving attempts of the new middle class is decisive in the social world in the future as the locomotive of the neo-liberal system, the issues pertaining to this class habitus carries big significance. Despite this, there are fewer studies on this subject and the majority of these are descriptive studies. For this reason, in spite of this study’s limitations, it nevertheless makes a crucial contribution to the sociological literature by opening the coaching practice up for discussion for the first time not as

124 a part of work sociology but rather, as part of the struggle of the new middle class for uprising and renewal. Again, the importance of this study derives from the fact that it tries to represent the diffusion and operation of the power of a hegemonic knowledge regarding personal wellness. It displayed the effect of this prevailing discourse on people’ way of reasoning, which is crucial in terms of comprehending the present course of social relations. Future researches can benefit from this study in contextualizing both the new middle class and life coaching.

125

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136

APPENDIX

The Original Interview Quotes AYÇA: “Psikolog çok teorik kalıyor, herşeyi konuşamıyorsunuz.”

“Gizli ya bu şeyler kimse birşey söylemiyor. Herkese koça gittiğimi söylemiyorum, beni yakından tanıyan, hukukumun eski olduklarına sölüyorum. Sen kendi hayatını düzeltemiyor musun diye psikolojik tarafı da var.”

“Koçlukta, kişisel gelişimde kendini keşfediyorsun, sorguluyorsun ve hep sana bişi katıyo. İletişim, ilişkiler keyif almadığın şeylerden bile sıyrılabileceğini gösteriyo sna. Farklı vizyon kazanıyosun. Her şeye daha analitik bakabiliyosn. Pek çok şeyi kendi gerçekliğimiz etrafında şekillendiriyoruz aslında hayat böyle değil, bu inanılmaz değişim yarattı.”

ECEM: “Eğitimime çok dikkat ettiler. Hep kurslar aldım; tenis kursu, yelken kursu vs. Gayet sosyal büyüttüler. Hani kendilerine yapamadıklarını bana yapmaya çalıştılar diye düşünüyorum. Bu açıdan çok güzel ama gene kopukluklar oluyor tabii kendi aramızda. Üniversite okumuş olsalar daha iyi anlaşabilirdik. En ufak dışarı çıkma mevzusunda bile, annemin tavrı vs.”

“Psikolog durumu uzun bi süreç, hemen sonuca bağlanmıyor ve insanlar varmak istiyorlar. Ben mesela varmak istiyorum, kaç seans gidip kaç para dökebilirim yani? Ama koçluk daha kısa sürede hedef odaklı.”

“Olumlama okuması veriyordu işte. Yazma ödevleri veriyordu. Ben yapmadım galiba ödevlerimi. Böyle sanki bir şeylerle yüzleşmek istemiyordum ve olmayacak gibi hislere kapılıyordum. Hayal kurmak istemiyordum. Çünkü ben çok hayal kuran bir insanım ve o süreçte de hayal kurmama kararı almıştım üzülmemek için, hayatı akışına bırakayım falan.”

İREM: “Ben kendi işimi kurmak istiyorum ama onla ilgili de korkularım var. Para kaybetme, yok sayılma korkusu vs. Onları çözdükçe kendi işimi yapıcam. Deri çanta tasarlamak istiyorum el yapımı.”

137 “Ben kendimden memnun değildim,benim potansiyelim bu değil. Benim a’dan z’ye hiç bir günüm bir şeyi unutmazken unutkan hale geldim. Girdiğim ortamda her erkeğin beğendiği, peşinden bir dünya adam koşarken, o gitti. 7 aylık bir ilişkim vardı bir de, orda da beni ezmeye çalıştı. Kendime güvenimi sarstı o benim. Babam öldükten 1 yıl sonraydı o ilişki. Zaten değersizlik, ölüm korkum var; bir de böyle sevdiğin kişi ezince seni iyice kendine güvenin gidiyo, kendini karşı tarafa kadın gibi gösteremiyorsun tarzı şeyler.”

“Bende bir değersizlik ve yok sayılma korkusu vardı. Bunu annemden yüklenmişim ben. Koçum şunu yaptı, “gözlerini kapa” dedi, “sana dokunduğumda ilk aklına gelen anı ne?” dedi. Çok alakasız bir anı geldi aklıma. Babam bize ev almış, biz yeni eve giriş yapmışız. Halbuki bir çocuk için ne kadar güzel birşey yeni oda falan. Annemin oradaki ifadesi, şoku, hayal kırıklığı, evin istediği yerde olmamasını, kötü döşenmesini ben yüklenmişim. Biliçaltım hayal kırıklığını, babamın onu yok saymasını ,bi ev kadını ama istediği gibi döşeyemedi falan.”

“Koçluk almadan önce de çözmüştüm biraz sistemi ama orda kabullenememe vardı. Şuan kabullenip affetme var, o yüzden batmıyo. Rahatsız etmiyor artık insanların yalan atması vs. O insanları yalancı olarak kabul ediyorsun.”

“Mesela ofise başladığımda genel müdür “böyle birşey olur mu? , böyle bir yok sayma olur mu?” diye söylenip duruyordu. Ben yok sayılma kelimesini 25 yaşında ondan öğrendim ama şuan görüyorumki o benim aynammış. Benim yok sayılma korkumdan dolayı devamlı bu kelimeyi kullanıyormuş. Farkındalık oluyor yani. Sen kendini 3. göz olarak izleyebiliyorsun farkındalık artınca. Patronum şuan ağır depresyon geçiriyor mesela, ben onda eski beni görüyorum. İş erteleyen, hiçbir şey yapmayan ,mutsuz, sinirli, anlamlı anlamsız çıkışan. Yansımalara göre kendini terbiye ediyosrun, terbiye ettikçe yükseliyosun.”

“Sanki sevgilin varmış gbi davranınca otomatik olarak o enerjiyi çekiyorsun. Olumlamalar yaptıktan sonra adamlar iltifat yapıyor, telefonumu istiyor. Parlıyorsun onu yapınca. Çünkü bilinçaltına o olumlamaları yüklüyorsun. Ben değerliyim vs. O senin duruşuna, enerjine yansıyo.”

138 “Ölüm korkum azaldıkça ciddi ilişki düşünen tipler çıkıyo karşıma. Neden yok sayıldığımı farkettim. Neden güçlü adam istediğimi fark ettim. Baba profilinden geliyormuş. Yine farkındalık. Farkındalık artınca sen kendini değiştiriyorsun,öyle olunca üst enerjiye çıkıyorsun, sonra da yapman gereken şeye de çok daha yaklaşıyorsun.”

“Hem kök korkuları buluyoruz, hem insanları affediyoruz, hem dışarıdan yüklendiğimiz şeyler varsa onları atıyoruz. Kim benim yansımam ben onlara bakıyorum. Yansımamı bulup onları affediyorum.”

NERİMAN: “Hani ben lisede şunu olmak istiyorum diye hayal etmiyordum, öyle bir şeyim yoktu. Sadece işte tek hayalim, evin dışında, yani bulunduğum ailemle büyümüştüm, o ortamın dışına gitmekti hani, farklı bir şehirde üniversite okumaktı. Hayalim buydu. Ama şey oldu, üniversiteyi de ailemle birlikte yani aynı şehirde, yani dışarıya gidemedim olan öyle oldu.”

“Oğlumun doktorunun ülkeden ayrılmaya karar verdiği dönem, destek aldığımız doktor kapılarını kapattı, yurtdışına gitti ve bu konuda Türkiyedeki en iyi uzmandı, konuyu bilen nadir insanlardan biriydi. Kendimi çaresiz hissettim. Yoğun olarak destek aldığım konu bu oldu.”

“Yanlış inanç o kadar çok var ki. Her şey olabilir. Yazılarımdan para kazanabilirim bu bir inanç. Eskiden yazılarımdan para kazanabilir miyim acaba? Her şeye biraz daha sorgulayıcı bakmaya çalışıyorum. (Toplumsal) kurallar var ama sonuçta kim koymuş arkadaşım bunları? Bu benim biraz kendi yorumum, kurallar var da kendim de varım. Geçenlerde parayla ilgili de seans aldım. İşte büyük bir evim olsun zengin olayım vs. Dedi ki “olur, olmaz değil.” Ama öğrendimki en büyük zenginlik kendini zengin hissetmek.”

“Kendimi dünya vatandaşı olarak görüyorum, sınıflandırma yok. Kesinlikle hayır, sınıflandırmıyorum.”

“Kendimi ben kapatmışım. Sonradan bunu farkettim. Şuanda da kendim olmaya çalışıyorum o da çok güzel bir şey aslında. Sevdiğim şeyleri yapmaya çalışıyorum ve şimdi bunalımlı bir hayatım yok. Çocuklarımla iyiyim, oğlumu kesinlikle öyle görmüyorum hani.”

139 “Bunalım dediğim dönem benim için çok önemli yani. İşte yaşadığımız her şeyde öldüm bittim mahvoldum falan. Artık öyle bir şey yok. Oldu bitti tamam. Üzülebiliriz tamam ama sonrası yok ki. Birşey geldi başıma, e olabilir. Daha kendimi dünya vatandaşı, insan, daha özgüvenli, müthiş hissediyorum.”

“Benim en büyük dönüşümüm kendim olmaktı, kendimi bulmaktı. İşte, mutsuz bir iş yaşantısı ondan sonra işte mutlu bir aile ama sonra bunalım içinde çocuğumun rahatsızlığı, işte benim bunu çok kötü bir şeymiş gibi görmem, çocuğumu eksikmiş gibi görmek. Ama sonunda hepsine dönüp baktığımda kendimi kaybettiğimi farkettim.”

“Bana kendini iyi hissettiren şeyleri, işte hayallerini, ve yapmaktan çok keyif aldığım şeyleri görsel olarak resmini alıp bir panoya yapıştırıyorsunuz. Öyle bir egzersiz. Atıyorum işte kitap okumayı çok seviyorum, bir kitap. Sonra gün içerisinde göz önünde durduğu zaman, geçerken görünce heycanlanıyorsun. O da olur mu falan diye, fazla ekstra bir çaba da göstermenize gerek kalmıyor yani. Bu aslında kişiyle de alakalı. Vizyon panoma bakıyorum, koçumla konuşuyorum falan bir bakmışım ki en sevdiğim şey yazmak olduğunu keşfettim ve yazılar yazdım.”

“Amacım daha iyi hissedeyim, daha çok seviyim, mutlu olayım, çevremdekiler mutlu olsun, enerjim bir yükselsin belki böylece ülkenin enerjisi değişir. Mesela ay tezi nasıl yazıcam eyvah! Neden? Gayet aslanlar gibi de yazacaksın, bak ne güzel konuşmalar yapıyorsun. Bakış açısı yani.”

PELİN: “Benim en büyük sıkıntı duyduğumda, başarısız hissetmemdi. Mükemeliyetçilik var. Hep derdim ki benim ortaokulum çok iyi bir okul değil ondan ben birinci oldum. Orayı da kötüledim o zaman ama aslında kötü bir okul değil yani. Üniversiteden de böyle olunca dedim bir tuhaflık var ama. İlk seans aldığımda, “Sorunun ne?” dedi, “neyi değiştirmek istersin?”,ben kendimi çok başarısız hissediyorum dedim. O da kahkaha atmıştı zaten.”

“İlk seansta direk sıraladım koçuma şunu çözmek istiyorum, bunu çözmek istiyorum. İlk söylediğim şey başarısız hissediyorum. Sonra, insanlarla iletişim, erkeklerle ilgili bakış açım, despot ve olumsuz bakıyordum, bolluk-bereket, parayla olan ilişkim ve ailemle olan ilişkim, güven duygusu. Güven problemim hayata karşı, aileme karşı

140 kendime karşı. Ailemle ilişkim, çok asi bir yapım vardı, kızgınlık gibi. Çocuklukta yaşadığım bazı şeyleri onlara mal etmek gibi. Ama bir süre sonra seanstan sonra aslında herşeyin benim seçimim olduğunu düşünüyorum şuanda.”

“Koçum “şuanda hayat kolay” dedi. Hatta başta sinirleniyor insan. Bunu çok tekrar etmeye çalıştım, bir yerlere astım. Kabul etmem zor oldu. Hayat kolay ve keyifli. Baktım artık bazen tıkır tıkır ilerliyor işler. Ben karşıya geçiyorum yeşil yanıyo, geçiyorum. Güzel anlaşıyoruz artık evrenle.”

“Alışverişi marketten yaparım.Kendimi bir şeye alıştırmak da istemiyorum, uyum sağlamak benim için çok önemli. Bugün burdan alırım yarın ordan alırım. Hayatımda bağımlılık haline getirdiğim birşey yok. Birşey ucuzdur ordan alırım, diğeri evime yakındır ordan. Bim, mopaş var evime yakın ordan genelde yapıyorum.”

“Kıyafetlerim, avm’den de ama daha çok semt pazarından da alırım, yeni bişi bulmak keşfetmek için. Keyifli geliyor bazen semtlerdeki küçük mağazalar ya da zincir mağazalar beğendiğim birşey olursa reklamda gördüğüm falan. Gördüğüm anında güzel diyip hissettiğim şeyi almak istiyorum, marka takıntım yok. Gündelik hayatta, o gün hissettiğim şeyi giymeye çalışıyorum.”

“Hareketli müzik severim genelde. Moduma göre değişir ama. Slov da severim. Genelde pop. Ama yeri gelir başka şeyler de dinlerim. O an kulağıma hoş gelen her şeyi dinleyebilirim.”

“Aslında dünya iyi ya da kötüye gidiyor diye düşünmüyorum çünkü kendi perspektifimden bakmış oluyorum sadece. Her dönem kendi içinde güzel. Bir enerjisel anlamda büyüdüğünü düşünüyorum. Kendi bakış açımdan baktığım zaman olumlu anlamda ilerleme görüyorum, somut görünenler olumsuz görünüyor ama hiçbir zaman ne ülkem, ailem, dünya, evren için umutsuzluk halinde olmayı tercih etmiyorum.”

“Türkiyedeki politik ortamı adaletsiz buluyorum. Halkın sahip olması gereken paranın yani eğitime,sağlığa, yararlı işlere yatırılacak, büyük kısmının kişilerin ceplerine

141 aktığını düşünüyorum. En büyük haksızlık halka yapılıyor yani. Seçimler falan hiçbir şeyin dürüst yapıldığına inanmıyorum yönetimden dolayı.”

“En belirgin örneği eve çıkabilmem oldu. Bunun bir şekilde altından kalkamayacağımı düşünüyordum sanırım. Toplumuzda da kadın olarak tek yaşayan çok az kesim var. Ablam, arkadaşlarım falan tek yaşayamam diyor. Kimisi korkuyorum diyor kimisi sıkılırım diyor. Bu beni vay be, ben çoğu kimsenin yapamadığı bir şeyi yapabiliyormuşum diyorum. Buna karar verebilmek hep istediğim birşeydi ama cesaret edemiyordum. Sonra bir gün diğer ablamla gene kavga ettik, ben bir şekilde, iş yaptığım laptopumu aldım, çantamı aldım. Gidiş o gidiş.”

“Kendi istediği işi seçme lüksünü bana verdiği için çok seviyorum işimi. Hem özel yaşantımla iş yaşantım çok iç içe ayıramıyorum ama kendi planımı kendim yaptığım için de vazgeçemiyorum bu çalışma stilinden.”

“Psikiyatriste gittim, iyi gelmedi bana. Sen bu sorunlarla kanser olursun falan. Psikolojim daha bozuldu.”

“Eskiden şükredecek neyim var ki diye düşünürken. Bazen bolluk bereket üzerinde şükrettiğin şeyleri yaz diyor yazamıyorum, çünkü maddi sıkıntıda olan birine demek. 2 tane yazıyorum gidiyor ama kira var, işim var para alamıyorum. Bunda çok zorlanmıştım.”

SERKAN: “Babam her şeyi yönlendirmek istiyor, karısını, çocuğunu. Gideceğim dershaneye varana kadar babam seçti. Anneme de söz vermiyordu ve hiçbir eğitimi olmamasına rağmen, ilkokul mezunu olmasına rağmen, kulaktan dolma bilgilerle eğitim hayatıma o karar verdi.”

“Politikacıların işi konuşmak, şov yapmak oldu. Ben şov yapan insanları sevmem.”

“Ailemin durumu eskiden çok iyiydi, babam kendi işini yapıyordu, ticaretle uğraşıyordu. Beni özelde okuttular. Noluyor? Burjuva sınıfı oluyo. Ama sonradan babamın işleri bozuldu, kazanımlar gitti. Sosyaldeki sosyal gelişmelerle de alakalı. Değişen sınıf yapısı. Benim zamanımda orta sınıftaki biri çocuğunu özel okula

142 gönderebilirken, şimdi çok yüksek olan kısım gönderiyor. Şimdi hangi sınıfa koyabilirim kendimi bilmiyorum.”

“Geçmişteki kötü senaryoyu farklı senaryo haline getirip benim için olumlu birşeymiş gibi. Onun da kendi kendime senaryo yazdım. Mesela sevmediğim bir ortama gittim, geçmiş anılarla ilgili gitmeye korktuğum bir yere gittim. Faydasını gördüm. Affetmek, bağışlamak. Bugün olduğumuz ortam bile benim o zamanki olayla alakalı beni çok rahatsız ederdi ama şuan öyle rahatsızlık hissetmiyorum.”

“Ama psikologlar napıyor? Herkese spora gidin, sinemaya gidin vs. Standart şeyler sunuyorlar. Kişiye özel kendi kendinin doktoru olması gerekiyor. Yaşam koçu bunları yapabilir.”

“Mesela aynı müzik kursuna gidiyorduk ya ben hocayı hiç sevmiyordum, hoca da beni sevmiyordu. Sırf koç var diye yanımda o adama katlanıyordum. Koç arkadaşım ayrıldı kurstan, ben daha sinirli oldum, katlanamadım, konsere çıkmadım mesela.”

“Örnek misal isim konusunda analiz falan astroloji ya da inanamıyorum. İçimden gelmiyor. Hoca okusun şeyine benziyor, muska falan. Bu tarz şeyler batıl geliyor bana. Mistik, dini şeyler onlar benim motivasyonumu düşürüyor açıkçası.”

ASLI: “Yani şöyle bir şey var, sağlıklı insanlar bugün depresif bir hayat yaşarken, engelli bir birey olarak onlardan daha mutlu bir hayat yaşıyorum.Bu da insanlara değişik geliyor ve şey yapıyorlar, ben niye yani? Bir yerde eziliyorlar ve kendilerini kamçılıyorlar. Bu da beni çok mutlu ediyor.”

“Ben hep diyorum, insan biraz bencil olacak diye. Kötü anlamda demiyorum. Duymayacaksınız, görmeyceksiniz, bilmeyceksiniz. Özgüven de böyle gelişiyor zaten. Başka türlü bunun içinden çıkamazsınız.”

“Kesinlikle kendimizi korumamız gerekiyor. Ben kendi adıma televizyon izlemiyorum. Şöyle birşey, demin de bahsettim ya, bilinçaltı kodlama diye. her dakika kodlanıyoruz ve medya bizi kodlayan en büyük araçlardan bir tanesi. Şimdi şöyle birşey var, bunların önüne geçemezsiniz. Tamam ben izliycem ama bunların kodlanmasına izin

143 vermiycem diye birşey yok. Onun için depresif haberler okumuyorum. Sürekli sıkıntılardan bahseden insanlarla muhatap olmuyorum.”

“İşte ne biliyim, atıyorum, parasız kalmaktan çok korkuyor, muhtaç olmaktan çok korkuyorsa, işte parayı hayatına çekebilmesi için hani, bolluk bilinci yaratmaya çalışıyoruz. Bu yönde bir program çıkarıyoruz. Bu programlarda genelde en az 3 hafta sürüyor.”

BERNA: “Mesela kişi diyor ki çok mutsuzum çünkü kocam bana şöyle yapmıyor böyle yapmıyor. Ama işte ben yaptım yaptım falan. O zaman ona her gün kişilere verdiklerini not et diyorum ya da kendimi seviyorum çünkü diye yaz. Bana diyorum mutluluk listeni çıkar.Bak bakalım seni mutlu eden şeyler neler. Hani gidip Yargıcıdan çanta almak değil. Sana özel seni mutlu eden şeyler. Mesela sabah uyandığında pencerede kuş gördüysem çok mutlu olabilirim, yağmuru izlemek, güneşin batışı vs. Bunlar daha çok sıkışmış, daha mutsuz, daha depresyona yakın insanlara verdiğim ödevler. O kişi çünkü bu haldeyse hayatındaki birçok parıltıları kaybetmiş oluyor. O yüzden ona içsel mutluluğunu tekrar hatırlamak için, ödevler veriyorum. Zaten 1 hafta içinde aşk böceği şeklinde geliyor. Noldu bana diyor falan.”

“Diyorum ki haydi otur sen nası bir ilişki arzuluyosrun onu bir daha bir ortaya çıkaralım. İşte benim için iletişim önemli, romantik olsun istiyorum. Bunların hepsi doğru hepsi yanlış hiç sorun değil. Peki buraya yazdık 20 madde. Peki karşındakinde kaçı var? Hiçbiri yok. E niye o ilişkidesin? Seviyorum. E o zaman senin sevdiğin bu değil. Bir onları netleştirelim.”

“İspatlandı ki kuantum fizik diye bir bilim dalı var, diyor ki hayır bu madde değil, bu bir enerji. Sen bunu masa olarak gördüğün için bu masa. Sen bunun masa olmadığını düşünürsen bu masa değil diyor. Ve kuantum fiziği eşittir olasılıklar fiziği, eşittir kuantlar. Atomun en küçük parçası kuant. Kuant da aslında ışık. Hani hepimizin özü atom ve onun da en küçük parçacığı kuantsa, hepimiz ışığız aslında. Ve yine diyor ki her şey olabilir. Ben hem orada hem burada olabilir miyim? Evet diyor yani. Evet, kuantum fizik diyor ki herşey mümkün, her şeyi yapabilirsin, herşey senin düşüncelerinde. Düşündüğüne dönüşürsün.”

144 “Ben hiçbir zaman sana git şu iş yerine başvur demiyorum. Şöyle giyin böyle giyin demiyorum. Asla bir seansta kişi yönlendirmesi yok, akıl verme yok. Doğru, yanlış yok. Çünkü dünyada 8 milyar insan var 8 milyar da doğru var.”

EMİR: “Örneğin o gün bir konu üzerinde konuşmuşuzdur. Mesela diyelim ki, ben dedi kendi hayatımda dedi, daha sağlıklı bir yaşama geçmek istiyorum. Örneğin dedi haftada 5 gün yürüyüp, 2 gün de plates yapmak istiyorum dedi. Koç şunu sorar “tamam peki önümüzdeki hafta, haftada 2 kere platese başlamak adına senin atacağın adımlar neler olucak?” Danışan da orada der ki, işte benim kız kardeşimin devam ettiği bir kişi vardı, onun telefonu bende var. Bu kişiyi şu gün arıyıcam, ondan randevu alıcam ve görüşücem. Tabii bu bahsetmiş olduğu eylem adımlarını gerçekleştirdi mi? Hangilerini yaptı? hangilerinde güçlükle karşılaştı? Eğer bazılarında güçlükle karşılaştıysa bunun nedeni ne olabilir? Bu ne şekilde aşılabilir? Bu şekilde ilerleniyor genelde.”

“Danışan bize geldiğinde ilk yapılan şey, bir durum tespiti yapmak. Dolayısıyla ilk seansta mutlaka bir durum tespiti yapılır.Hayatının farklı alanları itibariyle kişinin tatmin seviyesi ölçülür. İşte sağlık, ilişki, kariyer, sosyal hayat, para, zaman yönetimi vs. gibi. Kişinin tatmin seviyesi ölçüldükten sonra bu resmi kişinin değerlendirmesi istenir. İşte o tabloyu değerlendirdiğinde, hangi konular üzerinde çalışmak istediğini belirler. Puanlı bir tablo bu. 1 ile 10 arasında değişik alanlara puanlar verilmiştir. Ondan sonra 2.aşamada kişinin ulaşmak istediği hedeflerin belirlenmesi gerekir. Tamam bu alanlarda çalışmak istiyor ama bu alanlarda kısa vadede, orta vadede,uzun vadede ulaşmak istediği noktalar neler? Bu alanlar tespit edildikten sonra, bugünden oraya nasıl gidilebileceğine bakmak gerekir. Kişinin hangi değişimlere ihtiyacı var? Örneğin bakış açısını mı değiştirmek o kişiye daha yararlı olur, belli bir düşünce sistemini mi terk etmesi gerekiyor, veya her şey yerli yerinde de sadece eyleme mi geçemiyor, eylem anlamında mı desteklenmesi lazım? Her seansta bazı eylem adımları belirlenir. Bu şekilde ilerlenir.”

145 “Sosyal medyada her gün bir yazı yazıyorum. Bu dünya çapında yapılamayan bir şeydir aslında. Yani dünyada tektir. Her gün bir yazı yayımlanması anlamında tektir. Yaklaşık olarak da 50.000 tane takipçim var. 3 tane de kitap yazdım bu konuyla ilgili.”

“Koçluk da kişinin talebiyle birlikte kendisini keşfedeceği içsel bir yolculuk. O yolculukta danışana eşlik edilmesi. Yani o kişinin güçlü olan yönlerini, zayıf olan yönlerini, neleri seviyor, nelerden hoşlanmıyor. Sınırlamalardan bağımsız düşündüğünde ortaya koyduğu hayaller ne? O hayallerle ilgili kendisine koymuş olduğu düşünsel anlamdaki engeller neler? Kişi o anlamda kendisini yakından tanıdığında, hem potansiyelinin kullanılmayan bölümleri açığa çıkar, hem daha pozitif ve olumlu düşünerek, hedeflerine doğru ilerleyebilir.”

“Değerler bizim özümüzde yer alan, bizim özümüzü aydınlatan, önem verdiğimiz her türlü şeydir. Örneğin özgürlük olabilir, tutku olabilir, sevgi olabilir. Her insan esasında birbirine yakın değerleri önemser. Fakat bunun içsel sıralaması yani 1’den 10’a doğru sıraladığımızda çok farklıdır. O sıralamaları tek tek ortaya koymak gerekir.”

ORKUN: “Mesela bir gün kafayı kazıtmışım, patron bana ciddi kızdı. Şimdi nedir, ben buna bakarak , kızgınlıktan da ben rahatsız oluyorum çünkü şirketin kılık-kıyafet yönetmeliğini çiğnememişim, o zaman noluyor? Dönüp kendime soruyorum. Diyorum ki beni burada rahatsız eden ne? Ben hiçbir kural ihlal etmediğim halde bana karışılmış olması……… Ne istediğimi ne istemediğini netleştirdikçe insan, ben kendi adıma konuşayım, koçluk nedir ne değil... Dedim ya ben koçluk yapayım diye başlamadım ben ne yapacağımı buldum, bu nerede var diye baktım.Bunlardan bir tanesi de koçluğa uyuyordu. Eğer bunun cevabı marangozluk olsaydı, ben marangozluk yapacaktım, umrumda değildi artık benim ..’yı bitirmiş olmam.”

“Son 1,5-2 yıldır yapmadım birşey ama yani önceden meditasyon seansları olmuştu. Ama genelde 4 ile 6 haftaya yayılan çalışmalardan bahsediyoruz. Her biri haftada bir kere 4 saat falan uzunluğunda sürüyor. Aralarda bir çok ödevi var, ciddi yüzleşmeleri var. Yani kendinden kaçtığın yanları görmeler, gözleri şişerek gelen insanlar ağlamaktan falan. Böyle şeylerden bahsediyoruz. Çok hani teorik bilgi aktarayım lay lay lom, öyle şeyler değil yani.”

146 “Bu sistem mi dersin evren mi Allah mı, adının çok önemi yok. Yani buna bazı standartlar var olması gereken, eğer sen daha kaliteli yaşamak istiyorsan. Bunu söylemeye çalışıyorum.”

“Bir de şunu da söylemek lazım, bunlar gerçekten ilkokul 1 bilgisi gibi düşün. Yani sen diyorsun bunlar bir tuhaf geliyor falan, bunlar hiçbir şey değil gerçekten. Çok baz bilgi bunlar. İnanmakla ilgili bir şey değil, böyle çalışıyor yani sistem. Şimdi yani bunlar çok teorik gelebiliyor ama yaşamına sokmaya başladıkça anlayabilirsin, ne demek istediğimi.”

“Yani bir futbol yorumcusu mesela akşam birazcık dinlese maçı, adam şöyle bir bakıyor 5 dakika izlese, maçın sonucunu direkt söyler. Yani şimdi ömrün senin bununla geçmiş, takımın dizilimine bakıyorsun, öne kimi koydu, arkaya kimi koydu, ortaya kimi çıkarıcak, yani bütün bunları saniyeler içinde analiz edebiliyorsan, tabii ki gelen insandan da ne olur ne olmaz, ne anlatıyor, ne konuşuyor, elini nasıl koyuyor? O kadar çok şey söylüyor ki insana yani dinlemye, görmeye niyet edersen.”

“Çünkü bazen gerçekten değişmek istermiş gibi yapıp, miş gibi yapıyorlar, yani zaten artık o miş gibicileri çok baştan farkediyoruz, uzamıyor yani bu iş çok. İkinci, üçüncü görüşmede belli oluyor onun öyle olduğu, ben anlıyorum. Ben 2’de söylüyorum en geç, diyorum bak senin değişmeye niyetin yok, şudur budur aa olur mu yanlış anladınız falan. Ben yanlış anlamam yani, ben 8 yıldır masa satıyorum. Hangi ağaç sağlamdır, hangisi bir dokunuşta kırılır mı? Sunta mıdır? Köşeli midir? En kalitelisi midir? Ben anlarım yani işim bu benim. Yani ben nasıl yanlış anlıyım?”

SEVİM: “Korkuları kabul etmeyi öğretiyorum, hep böyle atma isteği var ya, kurtar beni, mümkün değil. Zaten sen tam ve bütünsün, korkularınla bir bütünsün. Seni ayırmam mümkün değil, ama kabul edebilirsin. Rahatlıyor zaten direkt.”

“Canımız istediği zaman dışarıda yemek yeriz. Özellikle çocuklar kebap veya balık yemek istediğinde gideriz.”

“Koçluk dili yayıldığı taktirde mutlu insan oranı artacaktır.”

“İlk görüşmeden (ücretsiz) sonra sözleşme yapıyoruz. Kaç lira, kaç seans almak gerektiği yazıyor sözleşmede. Etik değerlere uyacağıma dair imza atıyorum. Koçluk

147 sürecinde benden beklentileri nelerdir? Hangi konularda koçluk istiyor? Beklediği sonuç ne? Bunları alıyorum ilk etapta. Biz 6 haftayı planlamış oluyoruz ön görüşmede yani. Danışan böylece önünü görmüş oluyor. Zihninde bir kalıp oluşuyor. Bir bedel ödemesi gerektiği 6 hafta için ve sonunda bir değişim olacağı netleşmiş oluyor. Herhangi olumsuz durumda tabii sözleşmeyi feshetme maddesi de var.”

“Özellikle sınava hazırlık sürecinde ergenler ne kadar çalışırsak çalışalım bir noktada onlara yeterli olamadığımızı ya da onların bundan verim alamadığını gördüm.Bunun arkaplanını araştırma gereği duydum. Burdan başladık koçluğa.Üniversitedeki çoğu öğrenci alanından memnun değil, bu da insanları mutsuz doktor, mühendis yapıyo. Sonra kendilerine başka alan arıyolar. Öss’de aldıkları puana göre neresi denk gelirse diye yazanlar mutlu olmuyorlar, değiştirme riskini göze almayanlar gene böyle devam ediyor. Sonra gelecek için karar veremiyorlar çünkü eğitimleri uygun değil, çünkü derinlere inmek gerekiyor, ta ortaokula hayatlarına inmek gerekiyor. Koçluk burda işliyor. Ben istiyorum ki 40 yaşında belli bir kariyere gelmiş ama mutsuz insanlara koçluk yapacağıma, o insanın ortaokulana inerim, ona koçluk yaparım. O mutlu bir potansiyelle yürür, mutlu bir kişi olur, hem de başarılı olur.”

ZEHRA: “Seni konuşturup birşeyi gerçekten isteyip istemediğini sana sunmak lazım. O da şöyle olur, karşı tarafı rahatsız edicek sorularla, rahatsız oldu mu? Belli ki bulmuşun sen noktayı, devam et oluyor.”

“İnsanları mutsuz görmeye dayanamıyorum. Çok görüyorum böyle insan.Hepimiz olumsuz olunca, hissetmediğimiz bir enerji var dünyada, bilim adamları da açıklıyor bunu. Olumsuz düşücelerden kurulu enerji ne kadar yüksekse dünyanın yok olması o kadar kaçınılmaz oluyor. Tam tersi enerjide güzel şeyler oluşuyor. Profesyonel amaçla bunu yaymak için girdim.”

“Danışmanlık şirketi açsam önüme gelen herkesi alacaktım ama kendi kendine sormak zorundasın beni bırakmak demek koçluk. Herkesi alınca şimdi tecavüz edilen kız geldi ona robot gbi davranabilecek misin ya da tecavüz eden bir adam geldi. Ben böyle şeyleri istemiyorum, çünkü kendimi tanıyorum. Haksızlık varsa ben dayanamayabilirim, koçluktan çıkabilirim. Herkesi kabul etmiyorum yani.”

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